Extra Questions My Mother at Sixty Six Question

Question 1. What do you think is the pain and the ache that the poet feels?
Answer: The poet was driving back from her parent’s home to Cochin, and she gazed at her mother, sleeping, beside her. The poet felt agonized at the thought of her mother growing old. The realisation that her mother was inching towards death made the poet sad as she was plagued by the thought of losing her.

Question 2. Why are the young trees described as ‘sprinting’?
Answer: The poet, in order to distract her mind from the painful sight, looks out of the window. The trees outside her car window rushed past her as she drove ahead. On looking out from a moving vehicle, stationary objects seem to be moving in the opposite direction. Kamala Das compared the trees to young children, with boundless energy running past her window. She uses the poetic device of personification to achieve this comparison.

Question 3. Why has the poet used the image of the merry children “spilling out of their homes”?
Answer: The poet saw the children rushing out of their homes. The children were young and full of life, a sad contrast to her aged mother. They represented joyousness and vitality, a contrast to the ashen visage of the poet’s ageing mother. The image of the children lends a contrast to her mood.

Question 4. Why has the mother been compared to the “late winter’s moon”?
Answer: The ashen and pale visage of her mother led the poet to compare her mother with that of a late winter’s moon. The winter moon that had lost its luminosity and was waning is used as a simile to compare the mother’s old and pale countenance.

Question 5. What do the parting words of the poet and her smile signify?
Answer: The parting words of the poet and her smile signify her pain and fear of losing her mother. She tried to put on a brave front by hiding her fear behind a smile. She tried to hide her fear from her mother as she called out, “See you soon, Amma.” The smile also might mean a forced optimism which allowed her to believe that her mother might yet live for a long time.

My Mother at Sixty-six Short Answer Questions

Question 1. What are the words that convey the poet’s agony?
Answer: Looking at her mother, drained of colour, the poet realizes that her mother had grown old and weak and had come to the end of her life. The words “familiar ache” universalizes the emotion. She talks of her mother’s frailty by comparing her to a “corpse”. She desired to dispel the pain by looking out of the car window. In the end, she was unable to speak; she could only smile.

Question 2. Explain the contrasting situations in the poem? Why does the poet do so?
Answer: The poem throws up various contrasts to drive home the idea and fear of the mother inching close to death. First, the mother’s lifelessness in the car is contrasted to the activity outside—the trees running, the children spilling out and the airport buzzing with activity. It contrasts with the sadness and pain in the car with the euphoric mood outside. The poet uses the contrast to highlight the dissimilarity of both the situations.

Question 3. The mood and setting in the poem comes a full cycle. Explain.
Answer: The poet begins with a concern and grief of the mother’s lifelessness in the car. The poet then describes the energy and jubilation outside. Once again, the mood recoils into sadness and worry, at the end of the poem, when the poet talks of her mother being pale like a late winter’s moon.

My Mother at Sixty-six Value Based Question

Question 1. The poem deals with the subtleties of human relationships. Justify.
Answer: The poem, “My Mother at Sixty-six” revolves around the theme of advancing age and the consequent fear of loss and separation. As the poet was on the way to airport in Cochin, she was struck by the realization that her mother was old and frail, and was overwhelmed by the fear of her parent’s impending death. She observed her mother, in her twilight years, pale and waning like the winter moon.

Like any other child, she too remembered having harboured the insecurity of losing a parent that seemed to be presently unfolding in her life. Beset with sorrow and insecurity, at the end of the poem, she bid goodbye to her aged mother at the airport. The poet undergoes the universal emotions of grief and fear of losing a parent to old age and death. Kamala Das’ eloquent and poignant verse brings out the motif of transience and passing time.

Give examples from the poem of the following poetic devices.

Simile
“... face ashen like that of a corpse
...pale as a late winter’s moon”

Personification
“.. .young trees sprinting”

Metaphor
“merry children spilling out”

Irony
“The green trees racing (inanimate) while the mother like a corpse”

Contrast
“The world replete with activity contrasted with the near lifeless mother”

Tautology
“I looked again at her, wan, pale”

Repetition
“smile and smile and smile...”

Question 1.
What is the kind of pain and ache that the poet her mother might not live long with her. Therefore, feels ?
Answer:
The poet feels that her mother has grown so old that she couldn’t grow older. She means to say that her mother might not live long with her. Therefore, the poet feels pain and ache.

Question 2.
Why are the young trees described as sprinting’?
Answer:
The young trees are described as sprinting since the car is moving fast in the forward direction. The trees appear to move in the backward direction. In fact it is the car that moves not the trees.

Question 3.
Why has the poet brought in the image of the children 'spilling out of their homes'?
Answer:
The image of children spilling out of their homes has been brought to show the contrast between the old age and the childhood. In childhood, one is full of energy. In one’s old age the person becomes pale and lifeless.

Question 4.
Why has the mother been compared to the 'late winter’s moon'?
Answer:
Winter is considered as the season of death and lifelessness. All the activities come to a standstill. The old age is often compared with the winter season. A person in old age looks as pale as a late winter’s moon. Therefore the poet has compared her mother to the late winter’s moon.

Question 5.
What do the parting words of the poet and her smile signify ?
Answer:
The parting words of the poet were, ‘See you soon, Amma.’ And then she smiled and smiled only. These words show that the poet do feel for her mother but she could not express her feelings properly in words. Her smile signifies that she wants to hide her feelings for her mother under the garb of artificial smile.

Question 6.
Having looked at her mother the poet looked at her mother, why does Kamala Das look at the children ?
Answer:
The poet is full of pain and ache when she looks at her ageing mother. She has grown so old that she might not grow older. This means her days on this earth are numbered. The poet looks at the children outside to divert her attention from the sad thoughts she has about her old mother.

Question 7.
What was Kamala Das’s childhood fear?
Answer:
In her childhood, the poet’s heart was filled with fear whenever her mother was not with her. The poet now feels similar kind of fear since she senses that her mother has grown very old and perhaps she might not live long.

Question 8.
In the last line of the poem, ‘My Mother at Sixty-Six’, why does the poet use the word ‘smile’repeatedly ?
Answer:
The repetition of the smile indicates that the poet does feel for her mother, but she is unable to express her feelings openly. She tries to hide her true feelings under the garb of repeated smile.

Question 9.
How does Kamala Das try to put away the thoughts of her ageing mother ?
Answer:
When the poet sees her ageing mother, she becomes full of pain and agony. She thinks that her mother might not live long. To put away the thoughts of her ageing mother, the poet starts looking out of the car. She starts looking at the children rushing out of their homes and the trees that appear to sprinting.

Question 10.
What were the poet’s feelings at the airport ? How did she hide them ?
Answer:
The poet would become afraid when she did not find her mother with her. Her childhood’s fear now again, came to surface when she reached the airport. But she only said, ‘See you soon, Amma.’ And the poet could do nothing but smile and smile. The poet wants to convey the idea that the young ones do feel for their elders but they couldn’t express their feelings.

Question 11.
What were Kamala Das’s fears as a child ? Why do they surface when she is going to the airport ?
Answer:
In her childhood, the poet would become afraid when she could not find her mother with her. During her drive to the airport, the poet looked at her mother. The mother looked quite old and her face was white as a corpse. She felt that her mother was going to leave her for ever. In this way, the poet’s childhood fear surfaced when she was going to the airport.

My Mother At Sixty-six Extra Questions and Answers Long Answer Type

Question 1.
Ageing is a natural process; have you ever thought what our elderly parents expect from us ?
Answer:
Ageing is a natural process. When the person becomes old he becomes weak, he needs support both emotional and physical. Thus, it becomes our duty to provide our old parents the love, emotional support and respect they deserve. Our parents usually give us their best period of life to bring us up. Therefore it becomes our moral duty to reciprocate the same when they become old.

But unfortunately, due to rank materialism and nuclear family system the old people are treated as an unnecessary commodity. They are harassed and sometimes even beaten up. Many a time the old people are sent to old age homes, where they lack emotional support which the family can provide. It is very shameful for the younger generation. Our parents do not deserve such shabby treatment in their old age.

Question 2.
Write in brief the summary of the poem.
Answer:
One Friday morning the poet was driving in her car to the Cochin Airport from her parent’s home. Her old mother was sitting beside her. She had a glance at her mother. Her heart was full of pain to realize that her mother had grown very old. The poet’s mother was dozing, her mouth was opened and her face was as white as of a dead body. The poet realised

My Mother At Sixty-six Extra Questions and Answers Stanza For Comprehension

Stanza 1

Driving from my parent’s
home to Cochin last Friday
morning, I saw my mother,
beside me,
doze, open mouthed, her face
ashen like that
of a corpse and realized with pain
that she was as old as she
looked...

Questions
(a) Name the poem and the poet.
(b) Where was the poet driving to- ?
(c) Who was sitting beside her ?
(d) What did the poet realise with pain ?

Answers
(a) The name of the poem is ‘My Mother at Sixty-six’ and its poet is Kamala Das.
(b) She was driving to Cochin.
(c) Her mother was sitting beside her.
(d) She realised with pain that her mother had grown very old.

Stanza 2

... saw my mother,
beside me,
doze, open mouthed, her face
ashen like that
of a corpse and realized with pain

Questions
(a) Who is T ?
(b) What did ‘I’ realized with pain ?
(c) Why was the realization painful ?
(d) Identify and name the figure of speech used in these lines.

Answers
(a) The word T in these lines refers to the poet or the narrator.
(b) She realized with pain that her mother had grown very old and she might not live long.
(c) The realization was painful because the poet felt that she had to bear the separation from her mother soon.
(d) The figure of speech used here is simile ... ashen like that of a corpse.

Stanza 3

Put that thought away, and
looked out at young trees
sprinting, the merry children
spilling
out of their homes, but
after the airport’s
security check, standing
a few yards away, I
looked again at her,
wan, pale
as a late winter’s moon.

Questions
(a) Name the poem and the poet.
(b) Which thought did the poet put away ?
(c) What do the ‘sprinting trees’ signify ?
(d) What are ‘the merry children spilling out of their homes’ symbolic of ?

Answers
(a) The name of the poem is ‘My Mother at Sixty-six’ and its poet is Kamala Das.
(b) The thought that her mother had grown very old and might not live long.
(c) The ‘sprinting trees’ signify the childhood and youth.
(d) They are symbolic of carefree childhood.

Stanza 4

and felt that old
familiar ache, my
childhood’s fear,
but all I said was,
see you soon,
Amma,
all I did was smile and smile and smile...

Questions
(a) Name the poem and the poet.
(b) What was the poet’s childhood fear that now troubled her ?
(c) What do the poet’s parting words suggest ?
(d) Why did the poet smile and smile ?

Answers
(a) The name of the poem is ‘My Mother at Sixty-six’ and its poet is Kamala Das.
(b) When the poet was a child she became frightened when her mother was not with her. Now the same fear troubled her.
(c) These words show that the poet love her mother but she couldn’t find appropriate words to express her love.
(d) The poet could not find any words to express her feelings. Therefore, she did nothing but smile.

Stanza 5

… old
familiar ache,
my childhood’s fear,
but all I said was,
see you soon,
Amma,
All I did was smile and smile and smile…

Questions
(a) What does the phrase, ‘familiar ache’ mean ?
(b) What was the poet’s childhood fear ?
(c) What do the first two lines tell us about the poet’s feeling for her mother ?
(d) What does the repeated use of the word ‘smile’ mean ?

Answers
(a) This was the pain and agony that the poet often felt that one or the other day she had to suffer due to the separation from her mother.
(b) In her childhood, the poet’s heart was filled with fear whenever her mother was not with her.
(c) The first two lines tell us that the poet was deeply attached with her mother. Whenever she was not with her, her heart was filled with fear.
(d) It signifies that the poet tried to hide her true feelings under the garb of false smile.