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 realised with

pain

that she was as old as she

looked but soon

put that thought away

Questions:

1          Name the poem and the poet.

Ans      The name of the poem is ‘ My Mother at Sixty-six’ and the name of the poet is Kamala Das.

2          How did the poet’s mother look?

Ans      She looked very pale.

2(a)      How did her face look like?

Ans      Her face looked colourless like that of a corpse.

                        Or

            Her face looked pale, faded and lifeless like a dead body.

2 (c)     How has the mother’s face been described?

Ans      Her mother’s face is not lively and appears like a corpse with mouth open.

3          What did the poet realize with pain?

Ans      She realized with pain that her mother is very old now and is probably heading towards the end of her life.

4          Where was the narrator going and when?

Ans      The narrator was going from her parent’s home to Cochin on a Friday morning.

4 (a)     Where was the poet driving to?

Ans      The poet was driving from her parents’ home to Cochin airport.

5          What did the narrator see beside her? What was she doing?

Ans      The narrator saw her mother beside her on the seat. She was dozing with her mouth open.

6          Who is ‘I’ in the above lines?

Ans      ‘I’ is the narrator, the poet – Kamala Das.

6 (a)     Who does ‘I’ refer to? Where was she going?

7          How did the poet feel to see her mother?

Ans      She felt pain to see her mother.

8          Why did the mother’s face look like that of a corpse?

Ans      Her mother’s face looked like that of a corpse because she had grown old.

9          What did the poet do when she looked at her mother?

Ans:     She withdrew her thoughts from her mother and looked outside.

10        What thought did the poetess put away?

Ans      The poetess put the thought of her ageing and decaying mother away from her mind.

11        What did her mother’s corpse like ashen face remind her?

Ans      Her mother’s corpse like ashen face reminded her of her mother’s approaching death.