IN MEMORIAM NICOLAE PADURARU
He was my friend and my mentor and one of the world's greatest Dracula experts.
This man was the ultimate story-teller! Well-read and funny, charismatic and able to pull out of his hat - just like a magician did at the right moment - the joke that released the tension, the quote that solved a dilemma or the question that made you think.
Most of the great story-tellers are also histrionic. They love to get into the spotlight, be listened to and applauded. Only Paduraru used to manage the performance of teleporting his listeners up there on the stage, next to him, and gradually get them into the spotlight, with the feeling that it was them - not him - who were the genuine stars of the hour.
Just imagine this charismatic lord I once knew so well, who used to greet you with a "Welcome, Sir!" and shake your hand in a way that made you think you were at least a head of state on an official visit.
So modest and professing a self-imposed humbleness that he was able to 'wear' like no one else, as if wearing an English tailor-made suit, he managed to make you feel the most important human being on Earth. Behind his thick glasses, you could feel his concentration and attention focusing on you, as if it was him who had something to learn from you, and not the other way around.
He was the most fascinating person I have ever met. And all his life he served with equal devotion his two masters: the vampire count and Prince Vlad.