In episode 304 of The Just Checking In Podcast we checked back in with Nikhil Patel, alongside his mother, Gita Patel.
Nikhil Patel currently works as English Teacher and Student Support Lead at the Cambridge International School, based in Dubai in the United Arab Emirates, where he has worked since August 2021.
We first checked in with Nik way back when in JCIP #40, in May 2020!
We discussed his time working with our Founder Freddie at Barracuda's Summer Camps, where they first met, and his teaching journey. At that point in time Nik was working at a school in Doha in Qatar.
In this episode we are checking back in with Nik, but also his mum Gita.
Gita works in teaching herself and has worked in a number of roles across her teaching career.
She currently works as an SEND 1:1 Learning Coach & Higher Level Teaching Assistant (HLTA), and Gita was a big influence on Nik in his desire to be a teacher and has supported him on that journey.
Gita also worked at Barracudas at the time as Nikhil and Freddie did, as one of the senior leaders at the camp, and still works there every summer to this day in 2025.
The structure for this podcast will follow a similar to the amazing conversation we had with previous guests Jay Williams and his mum Niru, and will contain some similar themes too, with Niru and Gita both coming from an Indian background.
Unlike Niru, Gita was actually born in Mombasa in Kenya and was part of the Indian community there, before she moved to the UK when she was seven years old.
In this episode we discuss Gita’s mental health journey, the challenges of assimilating to the UK as a young girl, navigating adolescence and starting a family.
We then discuss motherhood, raising two sons in Nik and his younger brother Krishan, the anxieties she had about raising them with their dual English-Indian background, even when it came to choosing their names, and how she and her husband tried to give them the best of both these worlds.
After that, we have a nostalgic chat about Barracuda’s, before discussing Nik and Krish’s decisions to go to university and move away from home, flying the proverbial nest and the impact that had on Gita’s mental health as a parent.
We finish by discussing the relationship they have now as adults, how they lean on each other for advice and support as fellow teaching professionals, and how Gita deals with Nik living halfway across the world in the UAE on a weekly basis.
As always, #itsokaytovent
You can listen to Part 1 of Nikhil's journey here: https://soundcloud.com/venthelpuk/jcip-40-nikhil-patel
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