My Friends: Pau, the Nerd Drummer

“Show me who your friends are, and I will tell you who you are.” — Vladimir Lenin

I haven't slept for close to two days now. Well, not really, I must have slept for six to seven hours in the last 36. Anyway, I still can't sleep because of thoughts that I shouldn't be thinking about writing stuff that I shouldn't be writing about.

But I must write. So, I've decided that over the next few days, I will be writing about my friends. The real ones that really stuck over the years, not the accidental ones forced upon you by circumstance and leave you hanging.

Let's start with Pau.

If you know me well enough and remember hearing a story about me drinking gasoline (somewhat accidentally) and calling a doctor-friend once I regretted it, only to be coolly told to have someone take me to the nearest emergency room and getting hung up on— this is the guy!

I've known Pau for nearly three decades. We really didn't start out friendly with each other and, I suppose, both of us never imagined that we would stick together for this long. He's a nerd, like most doctors. I'm not. But he's a cool nerd. We were classmates in third year high school.

As I believe the story goes, his mother encouraged him to take up a hobby to ease some of the pressure he was feeling from being one of the top students in our batch. He initially decided to take up guitar lessons but, unfortunately for him, I think I was able to influence him to shift to the drums; because my garage band back then needed a drummer. Hahaha! To be sure, Pau's going to deny that influence bit but who cares, really?

Of course, he'd go on to become a very good drummer.

As I've mentioned, Pau's a doctor. He's a now a consultant in a couple of big hospitals but, because apart from being a nerd, he's a kind-hearted person, he spends a significant amount of his time in at least one charity clinic that I know of. If you think you've consulted with Pau before and recognise him from the photo, please don't tell him about this. He will literally kill me with radioactive shit— if not with more gasoline.

But in all seriousness, although Pau and I are good friends, we're not always happy together. There are often things we see from different angles and we both like to argue. Be that as it may, it's often a pleasure for me to speak with Pau at length about any random thing, whether we agree or disagree, because I feel a bit smarter when I leave that conversation than when it first started.

Nerd. LOL!