It is an irony that Cho Ramaswamy died barely 36 hours after his friend-turned-foe-turned-friend J Jayalalithaa departed. Ramaswamy was a man of many parts. Certainly, part vidushak, part chanakya. He took strong positions and never shied away from using his pen to speak his mind against the high and mighty. DMK supremo M Karunanidhi and Indira Gandhi were among his pet punch-bags.