Nepal butler inherits two luxury apartments in celebrity hub Manhattan

Melbourne, May 17 (ANI): A lucky Nepali butler has been bequeathed two apartments in the Dakota building in Central Park West, engraved in public memory as the site of John Lennon's assassination.

He will also receive 80 paintings by Russian master Pavel Tchelitchew , as part of the inheritance.

A far cry from Indra Tamang's humble Himalayan roots, the upscale apartment has seen the who's who of the glamour world, with Andy Warhol, Brooke Shields, Tennessee Williams and the likes having been regular visitors.

The plush apartment belonged to Tamang's employer Ruth Ford, a model and actress who was Hollywood star Zachary Scott's wife.

It has a distinctive history having been the site of the conception of West Side Story when composer Stephen Sondheim and librettist Arthur Laurents met Leonard Bernstein, a Dakota neighbour, The Age reports.

Tamang was Ford's assistant since 2002 and had been hired by her brother Charles back in 1974. He treated Tamang as his own son. After Charles' death, Ford told Tamang that he was like a brother to her.

Although the estate was valued at 8.4 million dollars in court records, Tamang will eventually inherit a much lower sum, as a result of taxes, fees and the sluggishness of the property market. He insists it never crossed his mind to move into the Dakota apartment. "It's too big for my needs and I'm not sure I could afford it anyway," he says.

Not one to get carried away by his windfall gains, the simple and sensible Tamang has carefully planned how he will be utilizing the money.

He wants to pay off the mortgage on his Queens house, visit Nepal for the first time in more than a decade, help relatives there, save for his 10-year-old daughter Zina's college fees, and archive the photographs he took when he worked with Mr Ford.

He is also not over the moon about the inheritance because of the circumstances under which he received it, "People ask me about what I've gained, but I think about what I've lost - the two most important people in my life, apart from blood relatives," said Tamang. (ANI)