let riot be the rhyme of the unheard the life of che At the risk of seeming ridiculous, let me say that the true revolutionary is guided by a great feeling of love. It is impossible to think of a genuine revolutionary lacking this quality. Ernesto Che Guevara True to the words said by Che Guevara, no revolution can succeed without love. A revolutionary without love is not a revolutionary but a dictator. There are only a handful of people in this earth who have risen above their personal self to fight for the interest of common people. Mahatma Gandhi did it in Asia, Nelson Mandela did it in Africa, and Martin Luther King Jr did it in America. They all gave up their life for the struggle of the people; they all rose above themselves to give us the freedom that we need. Their methods were all different. While Gandhi took the path of non violence, Mandela took up arms. Similarly one guy rose for the people of South America. His name was Ernesto Che Guevara, or simply Che. Someone once said ?worse are people who live with injustice than people who do injustice.? Che couldn?t see his brothers and sisters of South America live in injustice. Whenever I think of Che I imagine a young man in army fatigue working in the field with common peasants. A faint smile shrouded his face even in difficult situations. His face was stern with determination. His eyes seem to cry from watching all the injustice faced by his brothers and sisters. With deep and thoughtful eyes he looked like Lord Buddha watching over his disciples. It told people not to live with injustice and hatred. It fueled the fire of revolution in the heart of all the rebels. A sweet revolutionary fire. Che was born Ernesto Guevara de la Serna on 14 June 1928 in Rosario, Argentina. He was born in a relatively upper middle class family. He started suffering from a severe case of asthma from his early childhood. But that didn?t prevent him from playing football as a teen. He got an early education in Marxism and socialism from the books in his father?s library. He was a quick learner and an intellectual person. CIA was quoted as saying ?He (Che) is quite intelligent for a Latino.? He studied medicine and became interested in leprosy. He was also interested in South America thus, during 1948 he made a solo road trip of 4,000 miles around northern Argentina on a moped. He qualified as a doctor in 1953 and specialized as a dermatologist. But something was to happen before that which would change his life forever. During 1952 Che and his friend Alberto Granado set out on a motorcycle tour of South America. Between them they had good spirits, an urge for exploration and, an old motorbike. ?What do we leave behind when we cross each frontier? Each moment seems split in two; melancholy for what was left behind and the excitement of entering a new land? said Che Guevara in his book The Motorcycle Diaries. They journeyed through Buenos Aires, down the coast of Argentina, through the Andes into Chile, and then north into Peru, Columbia and Venezuela. They also spent few weeks in a leprosy camp in Peru. The land was lush green with forest and farmland. But to the dismay of young Che most of the farmland belonged not to the native people who farmed but to wealthy aristocrats. During his journey he met a lot of natives who had been displaced from their lands by imperialist government. He met people who had nothing to eat, even though they owned land. He met people who had no work except manual labor, even though they were educated. He saw native people being squashed by invaders and native culture raped by western atrocity. He began the journey as a young student uncertain of his goals and ended it as a man determined to free the people. Che was known to be of a very kind personality. He wasn?t a kind of man that would get angry very often. But to foes he was a formidable opponent who knew no mercy. He was the main driving force in Cuban revolution which overthrew the fascist regime of Fulgencio Batista. Even though he was second only to Fidel Castro he worked with the common farmers in the fields. Like Gandhi he lived a simple life. He lived with poor people and never misused the power or money. He was never a politician and like all revolutionist he fared badly when it came to politics. He wanted to unite the whole South America. He felt that people sharing the same language the same culture shouldn?t be divided by the boundaries of nation. While visiting Peru?s Inca ruins he wonders ?how can I feel nostalgic for a land I have never been to.? With this he tells us that all of South America is same as they all share same culture. After a while he became quite disillusioned with the way the government was going. Cuba became a pawn in the cold war game of America and Russia. The leaders he trusted as friends sold out to westernization. Looking at the situation in Cuba he says, ?Cruel leaders are replaced only to have new leaders turn cruel!? - Ernesto Che Guevara. After this he moved to Bolivia to continue his revolution. At the tender age of thirty-nine he was taken captive by the Bolivian government, and with the help of CIA, was shot six times and killed. His last words before dying were, "I knew you were going to shoot me; I should never have been taken alive. Tell Fidel that this failure does not mean the end of the revolution, that it will triumph elsewhere. Tell Aleida (his wife) to forget this, remarry and be happy, and keep the children studying. Ask the soldiers to aim well." I encountered Che when I was in tenth grade in the revolutionary magazines of my uncle. The picture was inspiring enough and single handedly led me into leftist ideology. I read the book he wrote about his travel of South America called, ?The Motorcycle Diaries?, and recently watched a movie based on the book. There are certain excerpts from the book that inspire and show his struggle towards becoming a revolutionist. ?Yet afterwards I doubted whether driftwood has the right to say, "I win," when the tide throws it on to the beach it seeks. But that was later, and is of no interest to the present?, The Motorcycle Diaries. In the above line he describes himself as driftwood struggling between his youth and a call for revolution. Thus we lost a great soul. But even after his death he is inspiring revolution. Death of a comrade gives birth to 1000 soldiers. For me he is an icon of freedom, of revolution, of resistance against injustice. People have called him terrorist a dictator a failed head of state. But he was a revolutionist and not a politician. He would obviously fail if he, a doctor, was given to run the national bank. He gave his life for a noble cause and fought for a noble cause. He discarded the lust of power for revolution; only few people can do that. Even though he has been turned into a cult icon, with his t-shirts and posters infiltrating the market, he will always inspire me as a person who cared for the betterment of others. With his name alone he will inspire a million of revolutionist for years to come.