My Mother at Sixty Six Class 12 English Exam Questions

Please refer to the below My Mother at Sixty Six important questions for Class 12 English. These questions and answers have been prepared as per the latest NCERT Book for Class 12 English. Students should go through chapter wise Class 12 English Important Questions designed as per the latest examination pattern issued by CBSE. 

Chapter Summary of My Mother at Sixty Six

• The poetess is driving from her parents’ home to Cochin by car, her mother by her side’ sleeping – open mouthed, very pale, colorless and frail-like a dead body(corpse) indicating that her end is near.

• The poetess looks at her mother and feels intense pain and agony to realize that soon death will cast her spell on her mother.

• The poetess tries to divert her mind by looking outside at the young trees sprinting and happy children bursting out of their homes in a playful mood (a contrasting image).

• After the security check at the airport she looks again at her mother’s face – pale and cold.

• Compares her mother’s face with “Late Winter-s Moon”

• The poetess experiences “Familiar ache” – pain of separation from her mother, and her “childhood fear” – fear of losing mother to death, returns.

• The poetess reassures her mother that they will meet again by saying see you soon amma.

Question. Read the extracts and answer the questions that follow-
 “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”

Question. How does the poetess describe her mother?
Answer. The poetess describes her mother as old, pale, cold and senile. As she dozes off beside her, the mother looks almost like a corpse, for her face is colorless and seems to have lost the colour and vitality of life.

Question. Who does ‘she’ refer to in the last line? What thoughts has the poetess driven away?
Answer. ‘She’ here refers to the poetess, Kamala Das’ mother. The poetess wants to put the haunting thought of parting with her mother away.

Question. Where is the poetess at present?
Answer. The poetess is on her way from her ancestral home to Cochin Airport, travelling by a car with her aged mother dozing off beside her.

Question. Read the extracts and answer the questions that follow-
  “but soon
  put that thought away, and
   looked out at Young
   Trees sprinting, the merry children spilling
   out of their homes”

Question. What thought did she try to drive away?
Answer. She tried to drive away the thought of her mother’s approaching death.

Question. What do the images of ‘young trees’ and ‘merry children’ symbolize?
Answer. Trees and children symbolize the spring of life, its strength, vigour and happiness which contrasts with the lifelessness and helplessness that sets in with age.

Question. Why does the poetess start ‘looking out’? What does her gesture suggest?
Answer. The poetess starts looking out of the window because she wants to drive away the pain and agony that she has experienced on seeing her aged mother. She wants to drive away her helplessness in the wake of her mother’s ageing and approaching death.

Question. What did the poetess see from the window of the car?
Answer. The poetess saw young trees running past her car and merry children sprinting out of their homes to play.

Question. Read the extracts and answer the questions that follow-
  “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”

Question. Why does the poetess ‘looks at her again’?
Answer. The poetess looks at her mother once again for the last time before she leaves to reassure herself about the well-being of her mother. It is a look of reassurance to meet her again, or of anxiety and fear that it might be her last meeting.

Question. Explain: ‘wan, pale as a late winter’s moon’.
Answer. In this simile, the poetess compares her mother’s pale and withered face to the late winter’s moon. Winter symbolizes death and the waning moon symbolizes decay. Just like the winter moon, covered and dimmed in fog and mist, loses its magnificence and brightness in winter, the thick cover of the winter of old age has made the mother weak, pale, withered, inactive and spiritless.

Question. Who is ‘I ‘ and why is she at the airport?
Answer. ‘I’ is the poetess Kamala Das here and the poetess is at the Cochin airport waiting to board the plane.

Question. Who does ‘her’ refer to? How does she look like?
Answer. ‘Her’ here refers to the poetess’ aged mother. In her declining stage of health, the mother looks pale, cold like a corpse and like a colourless, dull late winter’s moon.

Question. Read the extracts and answer the questions that follow-
  “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……”

Question. Why do you think, the poetess did not share her thoughts with her mother?
Answer. I think the poetess did not share her thoughts with her mother because they were caused by her fear of the unknown. Sharing them with the mother would have worried the frail old woman to death.

Question. What could have been the poetess’ childhood fears?
Answer. I think the poetess’ childhood fear was that she would lose her mother because death would consume her mother oney day or other.

Question. Did the poetess share her thoughts with her mother?
Answer. The poetess did not share her fears and agony with her mother. She only bid good bye to her with the hope to see her soon.

Question. What ‘familiar ache’ does the poetess feel?
Answer. The ‘familiar ache’ refers to the poetess’s fear of losing her mother and the realization that she has not cared and cannot care for her ageing mother. It is an ache of helplessness. It is also a fear of separation from the mother or the mother’s death.

Question. Why did the poetess only ‘smile’?
Answer. The poetess only smiled to hide her guilt, anxiety and fear of the unknown. Also, she wanted to bid a cheerful farewell to her mother before boarding the flight, giving a hollow promise wrapped in a meaningless smile.

Question. What is the kind of pain and ache that the poetess feels?
Answer. When the poetess looks at her mother’s face she finds that it has become pale and withered. She realizes that her mother is at the edge of her life and her end is near. The thought of permanent separation from her mother causes unbearable pain and ache in the poetess’s heart.

Question. Why does the poetess draw the image of sprinting trees and merry children?
Answer. Sprinting trees and merry children bursting out from the doors suggest fresh life and warm energy, vitality, youthfulness, spirit etc. The poetess draws this image to strike a scene of contrast with the pale, dull and withered face of the mother at the declining stage of her health.

Question. Why have the trees been described as sprinting?
Answer. The poetess is driving a car along with her mother. Her movement has created the visionary, illusion of the trees sprinting past. It also denotes fast pace of time.

Question. What does the poetess do to shrug off the painful thought of her mother’s approaching end?
Answer. To get rid of the painful thought of her mother’s nearing end ,the poetess shifts her attention from her mother’s pale face to the sprinting trees and the happy children spilling out of their house.

Question. What is the ‘familiar ache’?
Answer. The fear of losing her mother has tortured the poetess from her very childhood because she has been intimately bound up with her. Therefore this ache is familiar to her.

Question. Why has the mother been compared to the late winter’s moon?
Answer. The late winter’s moon lacks luster. The mothers face is pale and withered. Moreover, the late winter moon suggests the end of season and mother too is nearing the end of her life, therefore the poetess compares her mother’s face with the late winter’s moon.

Question. What do the parting words of the poetess and her smile signify?
Answer. The parting words of the poetess reflect the poetess’s pain, frustration, guilt and helplessness. But she wears a smile on her face to mask her pain and to give hope, happiness and reassurance to her mother.

Extracted Based Question

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, and looked out at Young Trees sprinting, the merry children spilling out of their homes, but after the airport’s security check, standing a few yards

Question. The poet was driving towards the   
(a) bus stand
(b) railway station
(c) airport
(d) metro-station

Question. The poet was leaving the house of   
(a) her aunt
(b) her mother
(c) her in laws
(d) her nephew

Question. The mother of the poetess is   
(a) smiling
(b) laughing
(c) crying
(d) dozing off

Question. She was going to    
(a) Goa
(b) Mumbai
(c) Cochin
(d) Kerela