As we enter the drop-in centre at Mitr Trust, a Delhi-based LGBT organisation, the first thing that catches my attention is a simple notice indicating the way to the washroom. This wasn’t just any washroom, the notices specifies that this was a “washroom for all genders”. It is with such simple little details that the space projects the essence of its founder’s vision — a world where gender norms and binaries are not applicable.

Rudrani Chettri is the dynamic woman behind Mitr Trust. She was recently in the news for initiating a campaign to start a modelling agency for and by transpeople. The idea is to re-define the notion of beauty, transforming it into something that goes beyond race, class, body-type, age and even gender. The initiative hopes to give everyone belonging to the transgender and Hijra community a chance to show the world their true selves and their fabulousness.

While, to many, this might seem like an exceptionally daunting task, Rudrani is hopeful about the participation. You can see the positivity and determination that she emits; the energy is powerful enough to make even the most cynical of us re-think. The elegance and ease with which she carries herself, as she ambles from one corner to the other, juggling work, interviews and light-hearted banter, is remarkable.

She sits down next to me, finally, and apologises for being “all over the place”, but considering the novelty of her campaign, it’s not too hard to understand the kind of frenzy she is in.

We sit down over a cup of tea to discuss what her life has been like — as a transwoman, as a social activist and as a model – and, of course, the modelling agency.

“Logon ne sundarta ko daayere mien bandh ke rakha hai [people have trapped beauty in a narrow framework],” says Rudrani, pointing out that for most transgender women, beauty plays a crucial role in their daily lives. Beauty and femininity are qualities that most transwomen run after, investing copious amounts of money, time and energy in their pursuits. “Femininity and beauty is usually the first on a transwoman’s check list,” she says.

For a lot of people, beauty is not an adjective that they associate with the Hijra community. Rudrani and her colleagues want to change that. So that the next time someone imagines an attractive person, they could also imagine a transgender person.

One of Delhi’s prominent stylists, Rishi Raj, is also on board, helping Rudrani with the project and has agreed to mentor the aspiring models. The project will kick off on February 7 when the first rounds of auditions will be held. The top five candidates will then get their own photoshoot, with everything — right from hair, to make-up, to dresses — covered. As if this in itself isn’t challenging enough, the project also seeks to raise £5,000 through crowd funding.

Rudrani wasn’t always Rudrani. She was born as a biological male to a middle-class family and had a different identity, a different name but her sense of self, as a woman, has remained constant.

She recounts her childhood, stating that even then she knew that she was trapped inside the wrong body, struggling to find a way out. Gender, she says, is not determined by our genitals but by how a person feels on the inside.

For most Hijra and transgender people, the decision to be themselves isn’t easy. They neither find acceptance in the male group, nor in the female group — they are often thrown out of both. That’s where the Hijra community and spaces like Mitr Trust come into play, creating a community of shared experiences, emotions and aspirations. “Our society randomly questions us about wanting to change. They say you were born perfectly, as a man, then why would you want to change. People don’t understand the emotional factor of identity or that gender is psychological,” she adds.

Rudrani knows the fight for equality and dignity for transpeople is hard and will be long, but one can’t see any trace of resentment, bitterness or cynicism in her. Rather she exudes an invincible spirit and a sense of hope. Hope for a world where every human being is beautiful and complete in themselves.