Page 1 : Additional Questions, Read the following extracts and answer the questions was, follows., 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”, a), b), c), d), , Where was the poet driving to?, How did her mother look like?, What did the poet notice about her mother?, What does the phrase “ashen like that of a corpse”, mean?, e) What image did the poet use to describe death in the, poem?, 2. “…….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 but soon, Put that thought away……”, a) Who is ‘I’?, b) What did ‘I’ realize with pain?, c) Why was the realization painful?, d) Identify the figure of speech used in these lines., e) Which ‘thought’ did the poet ‘put away’?, f) What worried the poet when she looked at her mother?, g) why was there pain in her realisation?, h) Why did she put that thought way?, 3. “…but soon

Page 2 : put that thought away, and, looked out at young, tress sprinting, the merry children spilling, out of their homes”, a. Why are the young trees described as sprinting?, b. How do you know that the joyful scene did not help her, drive away “that thought” from her mind?, c. Which thought did the poet put away?, d. What do the “sprinting trees” signify?, e. What did the poet see the children doing?, f. What are the “merry children spilling out of their homes”, symbolic of?, 4. “…..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…”, a) What was the poet’s childhood fear?, b) Why did the narrator smile repeatedly?, Or, What does the repeated use of the word, ‘smile’, mean?, c) What does the phrase ‘familiar ache’ mean?, d) What did the first two lines tell us about the poet’s, feeling for her mother?, 5. 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…”, a), b), c), d), e), f), , Who looked ‘wan’ and ‘pale’?, Explain ‘late winter’s moon’., How did the poet console herself and her mother?, What were the poet’s parting words signify?, Why did the poet look at her mother again?, What did she observe?

Page 3 : SHORT TYPE QUESTIONS (2 MARKS), 1. Why has the poet’s mother been compared to the “late, winter’s moon”?, 2. Why are young trees described as ‘sprinting’?, 3. What was the fear of the poetess as a child? why does it, surface when she is going to the airport?, 4. What were the poetess’ feeling at the airport? How did she, hide them?, 5. What do the parting words of Kamala Das and her smile, signify?, 6. What kind of pain does Kamala Das feel in ‘My Mother at, Sixty-Six?, 7. In the last line of the poem “My Mother at Sixty- Six”, why, does the poet use the word ‘smile ‘repeatedly?, 8. How did Kamala Das describe her mother during the drive to, Cochin?, 9. How does Kamala Das try to put way the thoughts of her, aging mother?, 10., Bring out the contrast portrayed by the scene outside, with the state of the poet’s mother., 11., The poet compares her mother to many things. Pick out, the similes which reinforce this comparison.