MY MOTHER AT SIXTY SIX

IMPORTANT STANZAS FOR COMPREHENSION

Read the stanzas given below and answer the questions that follow each:

1. Driving from my parents home to Cochin last Friday morning, I saw my mother, beside me,
doze, open mouthed, her face ashen like that of a corpse and realised with pain
that she was as old as she looked but soon

Questions
(a)Where was the poet driving to? Who was sitting beside her?
(b)What did the poet notice about her mother?
(c)Why was her mother’s face looked like that of a corpse?
(d)Find words from the passage which mean:
(i) sleep lightly (ii) dead body (iii) felt.
Answers:
(a)The poet was driving from her parent’s home to the Cochin airport. Her mother was sitting beside her.
(b)She noticed that her mother was dozing with her mouth open.
(c)Her mother’s face looked like that of the corpse because she was looking pale, faded and lifeless like a dead body.
(d)(i) doze (ii) corpse (iii) realised.

2.…………..She
looked but soon
put that thought away, and
looked out at Young
Trees sprinting, the merry children spilling
out of their homes,

Questions
(a)What did the poet realise? How did she feel?
(b) What did she do then?
(c)What did she notice in the world outside?
(d)Find words from the passage which mean: (ii) running fast (ii) happy (iii) moving out.
Answers:
(a)Her mother was lost somewhere else in thoughts. It pained her.
(b)The poet withdrew her thoughts from her mother and looked outside.
(c)She noticed that the young trees growing outside went past as if they were sprinting. Happy children were coming out of their houses.
(d)(i) sprinting (ii) merry (iii) spilling.

3………………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 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)What did the poet do after the security check?
(b)Why did the poet compare her mother’s face to a late winter’s moon?
(c)What is her childhood fear?
(d)How do the parting words of the poet and her smile present a contrast to her real feelings?

Answers:
(a)After the security check, the poet stood a few yards away from her mother and looked at her face again.
(b)The late winter moon lacks brightness as well as strength. The pale and colourless face of the mother resembles the late winter moon.
(c)Her childhood fear is that of separating from her mother.
(d)The poet’s parting words of assurance and her smiles present a stark contrast to the old familiar ache or childhood fear. Her words and smiles are a deliberate attempt to hide what is going on inside.