AHSEC | My Mother At Sixty Six Questions Answers | English | Lesson 5

AHSEC | My Mother At Sixty Six Questions Answers | NCERT | English

My Mother at sixty-six

I. Very Short Answer Questions: (1 mark each)

1. Who is the poet of the poem ‘My Mother at Sixty-six’?
Answer: Kamala Das is the poet of the poem ‘My Mother at Sixty-six’.
2. Read the following stanzas carefully and Answer the followings:

a. “But soon put the thought that away ……. Merry children spilling out of their homes.” [H.S. 2014]

i. Who looked out at the young trees?
Answer: In the question mentioned lines the poet Kamala Das looked out at the young trees.

ii. Which thought did the speaker put away?
Answer: The speaker of the poem put away the paled thought of losing her aged mother.

iii. What do the young trees signify?
Answer: The young sprinting trees signify the new age coming and passing it with the going time.

iv. What did the poet see the children doing?
Answer: The poet saw the children coming out of their homes to have enjoyment of their lives. 

b. “But after the airport’s security………… and smile and smile...”  
[H.S.2015]

i. What did the speaker do after the security check?
Answer: The speaker stands a few yards away from her mother and bade farewell to her mother. 

ii. Why did the poet compare her mother’s face to a late winter’s moon?
Answer: The poet compared her mother’s face to a late winter’s moon because her mother’s face paled with her old age like the late winter’s moon.

iii. What was the poet’s childhood fear?
OR
What was the childhood fear that now troubled the poet?

Answer: The childhood fear of the author was that she would lose the safest company of her mother. 

iv. What does the poet’s parting word suggest?
Answer: The poet was very sure that she would lose her mother any moment after her departure, yet she had a wish that she would be able to see her mother once again. So, she left her mother with a hope that she would be still alive when she would come back.

v. Why did the poet smile and smile?
Answer: The poet had a childhood fear of losing her mother but she did not allow her feelings to be an expression of her face and so she smiled to cover her inner sense of fear. 

c. “Driving from my parent’s home……...that of a corpse….”     [H.S. 2019]
i. Where is the poet Kamala Das driving to?
Answer: The poet Kamala Das is driving to the airport to fly to Cochin. 

ii. What does the poet Kamala Das notice when her mother sits beside her?
Answer: The poet Kamala Das notices the pale and ashen like face of her aged mother when her mother sits beside her. 

iii. Find words from the passage that mean ‘sleep lightly’ and ‘dead body’?
Answer: The word ‘doze’ means ‘sleep lightly’ and ‘corpse’ means ‘dead body’.

iv. Why is her mother’s face like that of a corpse?
Answer: The mother of the author is a sixty-six years old lady who is now paled because of her old age. So, her mother’s face is like that of a corpse. 

3. What do the words, ‘ashen’, ‘open mouthed’ and ‘corpse’ signify?
Answer: The words, ‘ashen’, ‘open mouthed’ and ‘corpse’ signify the aged and pale old mother of the poet. 

II. Short Answer questions: (2 marks each) 

1. Where is the poet going and who is with her?
Answer: The poet is going to the airport to fly to Cochin and she was accompanied by her aged mother. 

2. Which thought does the speaker put away? 
Answer: The author was accompanied by her aged mother. Looking at her paled and wan mother she developed an inner ache of losing her. But she puts away that thought for the time being.

3. What do the young sprinting trees signify?
Answer: - The young sprinting trees signify the new age coming and passing it with the going time. But the age of a person never stops even for a single moment and it keeps on sprinting until the person loses his charm and glittering with his old age. 

4. Why does the poet compare her mother’s face to ‘a late winter’s moon? [H.S.’12,’14]
Answer: ‘A late winter’s moon is pale and absent of brightness and is covered by dark shades. The old mother of the author has also lost all her charm and dignified glittering with her growing age. So, the poet compares her mother with a late winter’s moon.

5. What is the poet’s childhood fear?
Answer: The poet’s childhood fear is that she would have to depart her mother’s company. And the fear of losing her mother de froze her sentiments from the core. So, she again gradually started thinking she would have to say good bye to her mother. 

6. What are the ‘merry children spilling out of their homes’ symbolic of? OR Why has the poet brought in the image of the merry children ‘spilling out of their homes’? [H.S.’13,’16]
Answer: The ‘merry children spilling out of their homes’ signify the happy young age that have been bestowed upon the young children by their young and tender age. The young age is full of tenderness, it is uncomplicated and joy comes at this age much naturally and unfolded. 

7. What is the kind of pain and ache that the poet feels? [H.S.’14]
Answer: The journey of the author to the airport with her mother reveals the lost charm and glittering of her mother. The author realizes that the mother reaches the final stage of her life and she might lose her mother any moment. So, the thought of losing her aged mother brings pain and ache to the mind of the author. 

8. Explain the statement, ‘I saw my mother…. Her face ashen like that of a corpse’. [H.S.’14]

Answer: The journey of the author to the airport with her mother reveals the lost charm and glittering of her mother. The author realizes that the mother reaches the final stage of her life and she might lose her mother any moment. When mother was sleeping open mouthed in the car, her face was like a corpse.

9. Why does her childhood fear surface at this stage? 
Answer: At her childhood the author feared of losing her mother’s company.Presently the author’s mother became an old lady who lost all her charm. So, the fear of losing her mother strikes again in her mind as she departs the airport. 

10. What does the speaker do after check? What does she notice?
Answer:  The poet was driving to the airport to fly away to Cochin leaving her old mother behind. The poet passes through the security check of the airport. She then stands a few yards away and looks at her pale mother. 

She develops a fear of losing her but waves her hands saying that she would soon meet her again. She notices that the face of her mother appears like a late winter’s moon. Her childhood fear of losing her mother strikes her mind once again.

11. How does the poet’s mother look like? What kind of images has the poet used to signify her aging condition?
Answer: The poet’s mother has become an aged lady as she is at her sixty-six. Her face has become ashen like that of a corpse. Her face is wan and paled with the growing age. 

The poet compares her mother to that of a corpse. The pale face of the mother was as pale as a light winter’s moon.