Since I don't want to sound like a complete offence-bomb (because I'm not - I think), I decided against presenting this idea like a spoof Indian Railways advert, and am just going straight-shooter:
If you're male and have travelled in a non-AC compartment of the Indian Railways train service, you may have encountered a transexual (my spelling; derogatorily called hijra) asking you for money, supposedly in return for blessings. Being a rationalist, I don't really give a dime for any sort of blessings, and I equate the act with the same disgrace of begging. But transexuals in India face discrimination also because of their identity and associated superstitions; members of the community attempting to integrate into society face harsh discrimination and many obstacles.
An otherwise eccentric faculty member from my college told us that if you have a problem, look for another problem to cancel it out. While it sounds like wishful thinking, I have noticed many times after that this is true (sadly, still often in retrospect). I noticed two problems here - passengers in trains getting harassed by transexuals trying to make a living, and the difficulty of waking up at unearthly hours like 5 a.m. to get off at the right station. If you've noticed the Indian Railways ticket booking website, there's a small check-box for considering for 'Auto-upgradation'* of your berth to a higher 'class'. This seems like a fanciful dream they're feeding us, with not enough benefit to enough passengers** to justify taking up so much screen real estate. I've replaced that area with a 'Transexualarm' booking option:
Here's a blow-up of the option:
 |
| Dare I say copyright? |
Some of the 'options' may seem a little frivolous, but like I said, I had originally planned a spoof splash page, with a line-for-line replacement of the 'Auto-upgradation' option.
I see a couple of additional advantages here, apart from providing the members of this community with legitimate income, and passengers with a reliable wake-up call:
- The service providers do not need to uproot themselves from their 'base of operations' and can operate in local unions employed by the Indian Railways, with some benefits.
- This will encourage a more healthy professional interaction between members of the community and passengers, serving to dispel wrong notions held by society about transexuals, and encouraging acceptance and comfort.
I couldn't have made it less offensive than that.
* Yuck, two 'for's in a row
** Yuck, two 'enough's in a row
