Gita Miss: The Teacher Who Made Me a Writer

SPM School, Nigdi

Every writer has a teacher who changed the trajectory. For me, it was Gita Miss — my English teacher at SPM School, Yamuna Nagar, Nigdi.

What She Did

Gita Miss put in extra effort. She was the mother of my friend Shalaka, which meant she saw me not just as a student but as a person. She pushed harder because she could.

But here's what made her different: she never gave high marks. Maximum 5-5.5 out of 10, even for work she considered good.

This drove me insane. And that insanity became hunger. I wanted to write something so good that Gita Miss would have to give me a 6. A 7. Something that cracked her standard.

The Effect

Before Gita Miss, I had Jyoti Miss for English — who used to curse me for poor English. That was the baseline: a kid who was bad at English, being told he was bad at English.

Gita Miss reversed that entirely. Not by praising me. By showing me what excellence looked like and making it clear that I wasn't there yet — but I could be.

The poetry I started writing to learn vocabulary? That was for Gita Miss. The heavy, complex words that even a 28-year-old wouldn't understand? I was trying to impress her.

The Legacy

Today, I write primarily in English — more fluently than in Marathi, my mother tongue. I think in English when I write. I dream in English when I sleep.

That skill — the ability to express in English with precision and range — is the foundation of 68 published books, 2.6 million words, and an archive spanning 37 genres.

It started with a teacher who refused to say "good enough."

Gita Miss, if you ever read this: you never gave me more than 5.5. But the hunger you created produced 1,537 books. I hope that counts.

— From the desk of Atharva Inamdar, March 2026