Everyone wears him on the sleeve, but that's all that is left of Che Guevara. FYI trailed the legend through town, and found how some still think he was au00a0 wrestler, if not a rock star

Trends come; fashion goes. But Che stays. Walking through the parade of humanity, Delhi's street markets present you with an opportunity to revisit the once revolutionary hero, who is all but an enigmatic expression of rebellion today. Just a face. And farce. He's on top of store racks, and top of ignorance charts, too.

Che Guevara has been used to market Rage Against the Machine's music; endorses a New York grunge label and almost everything, from mugs and scarves to bags and even thongs, but it's a pity how less his proud wearers know of him.

When we stopped those who were shopping for pop art based on the enigma, the results were shocking. Some think Che Guevara is a rock star, while others assume he was a wrestler. A guest even tried to justify his ignorance: "We wear things that are attractive. We are not here to make sense out of them." And so, they continue to purchase over-priced memorabilia from upmarket fashion stores and local boutiques.

Both domestic and international brands, including Tantra, Lee and Archies, have been looking to extract maximum mileage from Che's popularity in India. And yet, the same people who wear him seem to know nothing of his historical stature and character, barring, of course, the boy clan that lives on rock and roll.

When a Guevara tee was requested for, at an upscale shop, the storekeeper looked confused and perplexed; he didn't know what we were was talking about. At another shop, the manager brought the T-shirts but couldn't recognise the man on them. A cool customer who walked in, too, failed the test. "Oh yeah, I've seen him. Some rock guy, I think," he shrugged, before getting back to his girlfriend's call.u00a0

Nevertheless, there's the revolutionary lot that gets furious when accused of lack of knowledge of the man who's rocked their shirts since over a decade. Political people and university students, in particular, who have heard or read about him, are captivated by the romanticism that surrounds the story of a young medical student raised in a wealthy home, leaving it all to bring justice for the impoverished millions. His story has been scripted in a number of Hollywood movies and a Spanish biopic, The Motorcycle Diaries, that won numerous awards and loud critical appreciation.

Vikas Sinha, a Delhi University student, thanks his tees for what he learnt about the icon. "Once, I thought he was a singer. But when I got to know about him, I was left awestruck. His life was a solid mould of aspirations, courage and sacrifice."u00a0

How he has remained the symbol of radical chic for so long isn't a matter of surprise. He's an embodiment of all that youth stands foru00a0-- intellectualism, rebellion, socialism, and eventually martyrdom. Even corporates trade him for their white collar once out of office. "I can't keep my hands off Che. He's the only guy who keeps my sanity in place," declares Nand Singh, CEO of an online marketing agency. "As they say, he's like Christ". Amen.
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Guevara guide for dummies
Ernesto "Che" Guevara (June 14, 1928 u2013 October 9, 1967), commonly known as El Che or simply Che, was an Argentine Marxist revolutionary, physician, author, intellectual, guerrilla leader, diplomat, military theorist, and major figure of the Cuban Revolution. As a young medical student, Guevara travelled throughout Latin America and was transformed by the endemic poverty he witnessed. His experiences and observations during these trips led him to conclude that the region's ingrained economic inequalities were a result of monopoly capitalism, neocolonialism, and imperialism, with the only remedy being world revolution. Time magazine named him one of the 100 most influential people of the 20th century.

If we wish to express what we want the men of future generations to be, we must say: Let them be like Che! If we wish to say how we want our children to be educated, we must say without hesitation: We want them to be educated in Che's spirit! If we want the model of a man, who does not belong to our times but to the future, I say from the depths of my heart that such a model, without a single stain on his conduct, without a single stain on his action, is Che!u00a0- Fidel Castro

I think anyone who buys a T-shirt of Che has gotta be cool. If I see someone with a Che T-shirt, I think, 'He's got good taste'u00a0- Benicio del Toro (played Guevara in the 2008 biopic Che)

Grab glam Che tees at
>>u00a0Janpath
>> Sarojini Nagar Market
>> Tibetan Market, Majnu Ka Tila
>> Palika Bazaar
>> Myntra.com