Transexualarm

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:

1. 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.
2. 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