Many years ago, a little boy from the Spanish city of Seville
asked his father, 'cuándo voy a ser la edad suficiente para hacer
lo que quiero'. His dad looked at him for a moment. 'No lo sé.
Nadie ha vivido tanto tiempo aún', the bespectacled Mr.Garcia
replied. His 6-year-old son, Pablo, looked at him with sorrow
in his eyes. But in that sorrow was determination. 'Tarde o temprano,
voy a hacer lo que quiero. Callate', he thought to himself.
He was an ambitious kid. He realized his true potential when
once, in school, he managed to divide an integer by zero. His
baffled teachers, of course, dismissed him as a jerk. A few years
later, in biology class, the teacher, Fernanda, was explaining
Darwin's theory of evolution. Pablo stood up. 'No hay teoría de
la evolución. Sólo hay una lista de criaturas que me han permitido
vivir'. Fernanda told Pablo to shut up. Pablo gave his teacher
an icy stare, and walked out of the class, slamming the revolving
door on his way out.
That was the last time Pablo set foot in a classroom. Of course,
for a person who has counted to infinity twice, a classroom wasn't
necessary. He set about writing his first book, 'Diario de Pablo'
at the age of 10. Well, he didn't have to write it, actually.
The words assembled themselves out of fear. Due to unfortunate
circumstances, the book never saw the light of day. The manuscript
was stolen from Pablo's house by Leslie, an Indian thief and rapist
who came to Spain looking for booty. Pablo knew, but didn't mind.
I asked Pablo about it as we sat chatting in his modest home.
"Perdonar es establecer un preso libre y descubrir que el detenido
fue usted".
He learnt about forgiveness long ago, as a kid. "Cuando yo era
un niño solía rezar cada noche para una nueva bicicleta. Entonces
me di cuenta de que el Señor no funciona de esa manera lo que
me robaron una y le pedíque me perdone". In any case, Pablo believes
in sharing. Life, information, knowledge. "Una vela no pierde
nada por otro la iluminación de velas", he says. One thing Pablo
really believes in is sharing information. He does that in a big
way on his website.
He then took a sip of his coffee. Water actually. He ground
the coffee with his teeth and boiled the water with his own rage.
Everyone fears him, as does this writer. When I was waiting for
him in his rather dark study, I wondered if would get out alive.
No one ever wants to be near Pablo when he's angry. The tales
of his fury are legendary in his neighbourhood. Well, not just
his neighbourhood. Intelligence sources say that Pablo features
as the binding reason for several of NASA's space expeditions.
Infact, Richard Branson's interest in space, including his travels
there, stem from the fact that they fear being on the same planet
as Pablo.
As I was waiting in fear, he came in. He didn't switch the lights
on. He switched the darkness off. Infact, legend has it that he
invented the colour black. Actually, he invented VIBGYOR, the
entire spectrum. Not pink, though. Brad Pitt invented Pink.