Varun Carvalho begins to ‘Turn the Tide’ in schools across Xaxti

The hall is packed with over 400 kids from Grade 10 to Grade 12  at The King’s School, Margao and Varun takes center stage with Elvis and Mukesh introducing the concept of ‘Turn the Tide’. ‘Stand up to what is right’ is what Varun gets the kids to dance to after making them own up to their local football club, FC Goa. Through the music, the sound of guitars, dancing and yelling, in comes well-known radio presenter, Joed Almeida and asks the kids if they’re having fun and if they really want to turn the tide and it’s a strong ‘Yes’ from the adrenaline pumped children.

“Turn the tide is a concept to bring about a change from within and create a ripple effect and get kids to connect through music and nothing but music. Kids’ lives are stressed and letting music bring that change and approach will be refreshing. Once they connect, these kids can be mobilized for so much positivity from saving the environment to spreading a message of love,” asserts Varun after his back to back Turn the Tide gig at another Salcete based school - Manovikas High School.

Varun, Elvis and Mukesh conceptualized the concept of Turn the Tide since Varun works very closely with Late Bob Marley’s Cousin Jimmy Malcolm in the Omeriah Malcom Music Foundation.

Varun plans to make Turn the Tide a concept where he tours schools’ music platform where kids can just be themselves. After successfully touring The King’s School and Manovikas High school in Margao, they next plan to continue their Xaxti tour through Carmel College, Loyola High School and then move to Mapusa to St Xavier’s College.

The concept is just to give the children a platform to express themselves by involving them in music and dance. “Then I want to connect with more schools and colleges outside Goa too and make Turn the Tide a touring bus where we go to maybe four schools a day,” Varun asserted.

By singing songs like ‘Stand Up for what is right’, ‘Change from Within’ and others, the kids are motivated to be alert about what’s happening around them. “I joined this bandwagon for the love of music. It’s amazing to see 400-500 kids sing and dance and that too in their uniforms. Music is a powerful medium and imagine if we can create young song writers expressing themselves through the 7-notes, I mean what more? I see this going a long way and ultimately the child will realize our dream, literally by meaning,” asserts Goa’s world acclaimed musician, Elvis Lobo who’s performed globally, and is not part and parcel of the Turn the Tide trio besides noted Jazz keyboardist, Mukesh Ghatwal.

Encouraging a gig like this during school hours and allowing Turn the Tide to debut at The King’s School, the Chairman of the School, Melvin Pereira explained, “Our vision as a school is also to motivate and direct students and enable them to understand that their role in society is important. That is why it was a privilege to be the first school to launch the Turn the Tide program this season. Varun Carvalho, once again, brought zest and passion to our young students, accompanied by some fine musical talent and RJ Joel Almeida who has a great knack of connecting with people.”

Similarly Joed who got the kids cheering and jumping and involved the teachers also at both the schools stated to us that his mission was to pump up the kids. “These are things we didn’t see in our school schools days. I go there impromptu and excite the kids, get them to sing for each other and express themselves about problems in society and just allow them to let go and dance to the music. It’s an amazing experience,” stated Joed who took time out of his work to come to a gig.

Varun is all set to take the concept to another level, especially before the Indian Super League begins. Estevan Cardozo, Grade 11 commerce student from The King’s School pointed out that it was a really amazing experience to see how music can touch people’s lives in such a beautiful way and how the cause itself is extraordinary.

Michelle Colaco, another grade 11 student from Manovikas, after a session of dancing exclaimed that Turn the Tide is a beautiful concept and brings a music concert like experience to a school. She added that it also gives the school an insight to what children look forward to and how music is the game changer in their lives and it’s a learning experience for schools and students.