WE TOO CAN SPIN

Despite the many odds stacked against them, India's women DJs are choosing to persevere

- Akhil Sood

Late last month, L Pakistani DJ Lyla-or Mahnoor Saifi-brought the house down at District 19, a creative community space in Karachi. As many as 400 women danced along to her set on a special Girls Night event. "I just did straight Bollywood, or throwback Britney [Spears], that kind of stuff. My goal was to keep a happy level to this night. And I wanted that happiness to infiltrate the rest of these people's weekends. All the feedback I got, they were like, 'Oh you brought this song back into my life. I left so happy that night, I woke up happy," says Lyla.

With her father in the United Nations, Lyla has moved across the world all her life. "Every three years, we'd move to a new country." The only things she was allowed to collect as a kid were music CDs and books. And so, she got into all kinds of music: "Heavy metal, folk, old-school SRK songs!" University-in Scotland-is where she discovered her love for DJing after experiencing club culture for the first time. She was blown away by the energy of the crowds and by how effortlessly DJs transmitted that vibe onto audiences.

One thing led to another, and soon a friend had signed her up for a 30-minute first-time DJ gig. She went armed with her little USB stick, having looked up a bunch of videos on YouTube to get a sense of what to do. Today, she's as comfortable mixing on digital gear as she is with vintage vinyl records. "I thought, 'Chalo, why not? Mazaa aaya- I had fun." From there, things seem to have fallen into place for the 28-year-old.