How fate smiled on foundling (Kathmandu Post):
http://www.ekantipur.com/the-kathmandu-post/2010/05/31/top-story/how-fate-smiled-on-foundling/208880/
BABURAM KHAREL
KATHMANDU, MAY 31 –
He was born in a Capital-based hospital on August 25, 1981. His mother died soon after his birth and his biological father abandoned him to the mercy of God. That day, August 25, 1981, there was no one to look after him. Would he live or die?
Then fate took a hand. He was just three months old 29 years ago, when a French doctor and philanthropist, Robert Raphael Boyer, arrived as the proverbial angel and gave him his new identity. Laxman was adopted by the Boyer family.
Who would have thought that this abandoned child would one day become the youngest politician and administrator in France? Raphael Laxman Boyer, under his foster parents’ identity, became his town’s youngest elected councilor and managing director of a college in France. Laxman got the chance to study in France’s expensive schools and colleges. He grew up at Saint-Genies-Laval in France with his brother J’er’emie Anai’s studying, playing the cello and taking part in sports. In an e-mail interview, Laxman said: “My childhood was exciting. During summer breaks, I used to travel to European countries and parts of the US.” The Boyer family never let him down.
What made him a successful man? “Education changed my life,” he said. “I am a bookworm.”
Laxman’s enthusiasm for books on French politics attracted him to politics. At a very young age, he joined a party called Rassemblement Pour La Re’publique, which claimed to be ‘Gaullist’. With a Masters in Public Law and Political Science from Paris University, he is now his town’s youngest elected councilor at 19. And he has a dream – to become the French Ambassador to Nepal.
However, Laxman recently decided to veer away from politics for some time. According to him, just like in Nepal most politicians in France also don’t work for the people. “My tenure as councilor was an eye-opener. I found that most of the political leaders are ambitious, selfish and do not live up to their words,” he said. He does not know much about Nepal’s politics but feels that it takes time to learn democratic norms and values.
Naturally, he has no memories of his birth place. Yet, his bond with Nepal is intact. Two years ago, he visited the country of his birth for the first time to explore his roots, and he still wants to come to Nepal and do something for orphans. “I would like to do my best for them as they are like me,” he said.
Laxman’s story is a perfect example of how to make the picture a perfect one, and more so, at a time when the country’s inter-country adoption process has hit the headlines for wrong reasons. It is no secret now that orphanages put children having biological parents for adoption just to get money. “Authorities should work for the best interests of the child and ensure that adoptive families will bring her/him up well,” Laxman said.
Ethics, Transparency, Support
~ What All Adoptions Deserve.
http://www.pear-now.org/