My Mother at Sixty Six Question Answers and Extra important Questions with summary and theme are available in the post, we are dedicated to providing quality content for NCERT Students in all over India, Have a look the Table of Contents for better navigation.
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My Mother at Sixty Six Question Answers
NCERT SOLUTIONS
THINK IT OUT
Q.1 What is the kind of pain and ache that the poet feels? (My Mother at Sixty Six Question Answers)
Answer. The poet sees the pale and corpse-like face of her mother. Her old familiar pain or ache returns. Perhaps she has been entertaining this fear since her childhood. This is the fear of decay and death. Time or ageing spares none. They have not spared her mother. They may not spare her too. With ageing, separation and death become unavoidable.
Q.2 Why are the young trees described as ‘sprinting? (Imp.)
Answer. It is our common experience. Whenever we travel in a fast-running vehicle, the standing objects appear to be running fast. The appearance of their fast-racing is described as ‘sprinting’. They provide a stark contrast to the passive old lady sitting inside the car.
Q.3 Why has the poet brought in the image of the merry children ‘spilling out of their homes’?
Answer. The contrast enhances the poetic effect. The poet’s mother who is sitting beside her is dozing. Her ‘ashen’ face looks lifeless and pale like a corpse. She is an image of ageing, decay and passivity. On the other hand, the children are gay and happy. They are moving out of their homes in large numbers. Here is an image of happiness and the spontaneous overflow of life.
Q. 4 Why has the mother been compared to the late winter’s moon’?
Answer. The simile used here is apt as well as effective. The poet’s mother is sixty-six. She has shrunk to an ‘ashen’ face resembling a corpse. She has lost the shine and strength of her youth. Similarly, the late winter moon looks hazy, and obscure, lacking shine and strength. Hence, the comparison is quite natural and appropriate.
Q. 5 What do the parting words of the poet and her smile signify?
Answer. The old familiar ache or fear of childhood returns. It provides a stark contrast to the parting words of assurance and her smiles. The parting words: “See you soon, Amma”, give an assurance of life to an old and weak lady. The mother’s ‘ashen face looks like a corpse. Similarly, the poet’s continuous smiling is an attempt to overcome the ache and fear inside her heart and to assure the old lady that they will meet again soon.
My Mother at Sixty Six Extra Questions Answers
Q. 1. Where is the poet going and who is with her? (My Mother at Sixty Six Question Answers)
Ans. The poet is driving from her parent’s home to the Cochin airport. Her mother has come to see her daughter off. She is sitting beside her and dozing with her mouth open. Her face looks pale and lifeless like a dead boy. The poet is ‘driving’ but the old lady is ‘dozing’. The poet gives an image of dynamic activity while her mother is a picture of passivity.
Q.2. Why does Kamala Das describe the young trees as sprinting? (A.I. CBSE 2008)
Or
Why are the young trees described as ‘sprinting’? (My Mother at Sixty Six Question Answers)
Answer Kamala Das is driving from her parent’s home to Cochin. She looks outside the window. From the moving car, the young trees growing outside appear to be running with the speeding car. Hence, she describes them as ‘sprinting’. They provide a stark contrast to the passivity of her mother.
Q3 How does the poet’s mother look like? What kind of images has the poet used to signify her aging and decay? (My Mother at Sixty Six Question Answers)
Ans. The poet’s mother is at sixty-six. She is sitting beside her. The mother is dozing as people usually do during the journey. She keeps her mouth open. This is also a sign of old age. Her face looks pale and faded like ash. Actually, she is an image of decay and death. Her ashen face looks like that of a corpse.
Q.4 Why does the poet ‘put that thought away’ and look outside? (My Mother at Sixty Six Question Answers)
Ans. The poet’s old mother is sitting beside her. She is dozing with her mouth open. Her face looks pale and faded. She looks lifeless like a corpse. Actually, she gives an image of passivity, decay and death. The poet needs a distraction, a change. Hence she looks outside where she gets a picture of life, happiness and activity.
Q5. Describe the contrast of the scene inside the car with the activities going on outside. Describe the use of images that the poet employs to strike that contrast.
Ans. Inside the car sits an old mother beside the poet. She is sixty-six and ageing. Her ashen’ face is pale and lifeless like a corpse. The world outside provides a stark contrast. The young trees seem to be running past or sprinting. The children are making merry. The ‘ashen’ and ‘corpse-like’ face is contrasted with the ‘young’ trees ‘sprinting’ outside and the merry children coming out of their houses.
Q.6 Why does the poet feel her old familiar ache and what is her childhood fear?
Ans. The sight of her old mother’s corpse-like face arouses ‘that old familiar ache’ in her heart. Her childhood fear returns. The fear is that with aging comes decay and death. Ageing and decay are inevitable. (अवश्यंभावी) No one can avoid them. Perhaps she herself may have to face all these things. This idea is quite painful and fearful to her.
Q.7 With fear and ache inside her heart and words of assurance on lips and smile on the face, the poet presents two opposite and contrasting experiences. Why does the poet put on a smile?
Ans. The ‘wan, pale’ face of her mother at sixty-six brings an image of decay and death. It brings that old familiar ache and fear back. She fears the fate of man. She composes herself and tries to look normal. She smiles continuously. She assures the old mother that they will meet again soon.
Q. 8 What were the poet’s feelings at the airport? How did she hide them? (CBSE 2012)
Ans. The poet experienced two opposite and contrasting feelings at the airport. The ashen and pale face of her mother brought an image of decay and death. But she immediately hid her real feelings. She composed herself and tried to look normal. She smiled continuously to assure her mother that they would meet again soon.
Q.9. What is the significance of the parting words of the poet and her smile, in My Mother at Sixty-six’? (CBSE Sample Paper-I)
Ans. The sight of her mother’s ashen and pale face brings a picture of death and decay to the poet. But the poet immediately hides her real feelings and tries to look normal. Her parting words:” see you soon, Amma”, is just an attempt to assure the old lady that everything is well and they will meet again soon. Her smile is also an attempt to hide the anxiety and fear that she had while looking at the ashen and pale face of her mother.
Q.10. Describe the poetic devices used by Kamala Das in ‘My Mother At Sixty-(Imp.)
Ans. Kamala Das’ ‘My Mother At Sixty-Six’ is rich in imagery. The use of simile is very effective. Her face has been described as ‘ashen’. The ashen face is like that of a corpse. Again the ‘wan, pale’ face of the mother is compared to “ a late winter’s moon”. The poem excels in contrasts.
My Mother at Sixty Six Short Extra Questions Answers
Q.1 Why does the poet look away from her thoughts? (My Mother at Sixty Six Question Answers)
Ans. The poet was trying to dismiss the worries of her mother’s imminent death and her inability to be with her during her frail health. So she looked outside at the trees and children which symbolise life, hope and vitality.
Q.2. Contrast the two scenes depicted in the poem. (My Mother at Sixty Six Question Answers)
Ans. On the one hand, it was the poet’s mother whose face was pale and lifeless, devoid of any vitality. It almost looked like a corpse. The second scene was full of life, growth and joy as depicted by the trees and children.
Q.3. What happens after the security check? (My Mother at Sixty Six Question Answers)
Ans. The poet looked again at her mother’s “ashen face” and the familiar pain of childhood returned but she brushed it aside and bid goodbye to her mother with a smile, conveying the message of hope and cheer by saying “See you soon, Amma.”
Q.4. Which literary devices has the poet used to highlight her mother’s condition?
Ans. The poet has used similes and images to highlight her mother’s condition.
Q.5 The poet feels very sad to bid farewell to her mother. Why? (My Mother at Sixty Six Question Answers)
Ans. The poet realises with pain that her mother is looking so sick, that she appears to be on the verge of death. She feels guilty to bid farewell to her mother at this stage.
Q.6. How does the poet describe the old age of her mother? (My Mother at Sixty Six Question Answers)
Ans. The poet uses similes from nature to highlight the pale and lifeless face of the mother. At times she looks like a “dull and faded winter moon”, sometimes she looks “like a corpse”.
Q.7. What childhood fear does Kamala Das express? (My Mother at Sixty Six Question Answers)
Ans. For a child to be separated from her mother is unthinkable. Since childhood, a child weaves her world around her mother. He/she can’t think of being without her. Separation is very difficult to even contemplate. The poet too could not bear to be separated from her mother.
Q.8. The freshness and youth distract the poet’s spirit for some time but she cannot put away the thought of her mother’s “ashen” existence anymore. Why?
Ans. The scenery outside diverts the poet’s mind for some time but the bare fact of her mother’s approaching death can never be subdued by any other line of thinking.
Q.9. What is the underlying message of the poem? (My Mother at Sixty Six Question Answers)
Ans. Kamala Das is deeply distressed to see the pitiable state of her mother’s condition, but she cannot stay back. She has to move on, as life does, leaving her mother behind. Death or approaching death, no matter how painful, has to be accepted.
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