P. Ramalingam - An Obituary My grandpa (thatha as we lovingly called him) was a kind, loving man of principles. He was the oldest Carnatic singer I have known in my family. He deeply loved and revered music. Ever since I was little he would always ask me to take time out to practice music. When I would visit him back home, he would lovingly sit next to me and and ask me to sing the new ragams that I learnt in the recent past and close his eyes and be lost in my music. In his later days, he lost his hearing abilities to a great extent, but he would still strain his ears to talk to me on the phone when I called him. You would always find him singing or humming a Carnatic tune, much as his voice allowed him to the very end of his time. I pay all my heartfelt respects to this man from whom I learnt so much, growing up and in every stage of my life. He lived by his rules and he ardently stuck to them till his last days. He was big on reading the newspaper. Not a day would pass when he would