Music has no gender, they say. Mohini Dey would agree. As a bassist, she is unarguably among the top instrumentalists in the country. Having emerged as a prodigy, she has performed with Ustad Zakir Hussain, AR Rahman, Marco Minneman and Jordan Rudess, among others. “It just happened because I came from a musical family. It was not something I consciously chose, but I connected to it,” she explains.

Her early years were devoid of any gender perception, Dey insists. But that changed as she entered her teens. It was then that she began to notice the absence of female instrumentalists around her. The 26-year-old emphasises that while her experience with musicians have largely been encouraging, there is an occasional apprehension. “Especially when you are playing with a new group for the first time or are new to the group,” she says.