Flamingo Chapter 9 My Mother At Sixty-Six

The poetess feels pain on seeing the pale and corpse like face of her mother. There appears her old familiar pain of childhood in her heart. She realises that her mother’s face has become like the withered moon of the winter season. She feels that time and age spare none and both are inevitable.

The poetess is in a car on her way home to the Cochin airport. She looks outside and feels the young trees seem to be walking past them. With the car they seem to be sprinting or racing. The poetess gives a comparison and contrast of her dozing mother with those of young trees running and full of life.

The poetess talks of various stages of life. On one side there are merry children play and enjoy in the sun. They represent life, vigour, continuity, power, action and carefree life. On the other there is her aged mother. The continuity in the activities of life as well as spontaneous flow of life has been depicted by the merry children spilling out of their homes.

The late winter’s moon is calm and hazy with a dim lustre. It loses its vitality and power. So the poetess compares her mother’s calm, colourless and withered face like the late winter’s moon. She has become weak, wan and ‘pale due to her age of sixty-six. She has lost her vitality.

After the airport’s security check, watching her mother standing a few yards away, she spoke, “See you soon “Amma.” These words signify some sort of hope. It shows some promise as well as expectation that she would see her mother again. She might find her alive. So she scatters a smile on her face to pay her mother her lasting tribute. On the other hand she is troubled at heart to leave her mother alone.

One Friday morning the poetess was driving from her father’s home to the Cochin Airport. Her mother was sitting beside her dozing with open mouth. Here “driving” represents activity and ‘doze’ shows passivity. Her mother had come to see her off.

The poetess was going to the Cochin Airport with her mother. While driving she saw her mother in a dozing condition like the other old people. Her mouth was open and her face looked pale, colourless and faded like the ash. This represents the ageing process of her mother. She was like a withered moon of the late winter.

While driving her car, the mother was sitting with her. She was dozing with mouth open. Her face was pale and ashen. She looked like a corpse. She was deeply depressed and negative image of passivity started revolving in her mind. In order to put these troubled thoughts away, she looked at the outside world which was full of life, activity and vigour. She felt happiness.

The poetess has become tense and heavy at her heart on seeing the aged condition of her mother. To sense a change and happiness, she looks at the outside world. She watches the young trees running after them in a race. She becomes happy on seeing gay children coming out of their homes. These signify life, activity, happiness and continuity. There is a good contrast of life and decay, happiness and sadness, continuity and stability, etc.

In the poem ‘My Mother At Sixty-six one can realise continuity and stability, life and activity etc. The mother of the poetess is sixty-six. The age has withered her strength and vigour. Her face is pale and looks like a corpse. The outside world expresses a good contrast. The young children are coming out of their homes. The image of dozing is contrasted with ‘spilling’ of the children. Her ‘ashen’ face is contrasted and the ‘corpse like’ face is contrasted with young trees sprinting.

On reaching the Cochin Airport, the poetess moves through the security check while her mother remains standing a few yards away. Before departing, she looks at her mother again. She looks like the late winter’s moon. This represents the process of decaying and the old age.

After seeing her mother at sixty-six in a pale like corpse face, her childhood fear returns. She is much pained at the ageing and deeping of her mother. She is deeply hurt lest she should not find her mother alive after her return. She also realises that in the coming years, she will also have to face all such processes of life. These appear very much troublesome to her.

B.

poetess Kamala Das

C.

smiling, smiling, smiling

A.

to overcome her ache and fear

(i) The poem ‘My Mother at Sixty-Six’ is written by Kamala Das.

(ii) The narrator was driving from her parent’s home to Cochin on Friday morning.

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

(iv) T is the narrator-the poetess, Kamala Das.

(v) Her face looked colourless like that of a corpse.

A.

‘See you soon, Amma’

 

Kamala Das looked at her aged mother. She was troubled to see her colourless, lifeless and pale face. Her childhood ache possessed her again. But, she contained herself and scattered smiles on her face. In this way, she put away the thought of her mother’s old age.

Kamala Das is one of India’s foremost poets who captures subtleties of human relationship in this poem. She is going to the Cochin Airport in a car alongwith her mother. She is sixty-six. She is dozing with her mouth open. Her pale and ashen face is like a corpse. She looks as if she were lost in her own thoughts of ageing. The poetess paints her wan face like the late winter’s moon that starts decaying and losing its brightness. At that time she feels her old. Familiar ache of childhood with it the life starts and with ageing it ends.

On the other side, the poetess wants to do away with the thought of her mother. So he looks outside and sees the young trees sprinting and the children spilling out of their homes. All these activities represent continuity of life as well as the inevitable life circle. The presence of mother also suggests the unavoidable existence of an element of feminism in our life.

Kamala Das’s mother was an old lady of sixty six. Her childhood fear returned on seeing her pale and corpse-like face she feared lest her mother should die before her return. She also got troubled on thinking that she would also face such processes of life. She tries to remove her fear by providing her moral support to her mother. Through her smiles she assures her to meet again.

While driving towards the airport, she looked at her old mother sitting beside her. She was aged, weak, pale and wan. She looked like a corpse. She was afraid lest she should die soon. Separation from her was a troublesome and heart-felt thought. These fears surfaced at this stage because the mother was going to see the poetess off at the Cochin airport.

Kamala Das has presented the complex subtleties of human relationship in this poem. She realises the pain and anxiety of her old-aged mother at sixty-six. She feels that her mother may pass away and leave her all alone. She is conscious of her duty and provides her moral support to see her very soon.

The poet’s parting words signify to her mother some sort of hope. These express some promise and expectation of seeing her mother again. On her return she might find her alive. So she scatters a smile on her face to pay her mother her lasting tribute. On the other hand she is troubled at heart to leave her mother alone.

The poetess presents a fine contrast of happy children with her old mother. They represent continuity, vigour, life, power, action and care-free life. They are coming out of their houses to school happily in the morning. On the other hand her mother is sick, pale, weak and like a corpse. The combination of old age with that of children is a perfect blend of past and future.

The poem ‘My mother as Sixty-Six’ is full of imagery, contrast and simile. She describes her face ‘ashen’ like a corpse. She compares her wan face with a late winter’s moon.” The dozing mother is contrasted with sprinting young trees and spilling children out of their homes. Thus their is a fine blend of activity, life, decay and happiness.

There is no denying the fact that ageing is a natural process. Our elderly parents expect from their wards to serve, help and look after them properly. They want every care, love and affection from them. They want to live with them to impart their best experiences of life.

B.

Airport security check

C.

wan and pale

C.

late winter’s moon

B.

fear of ageing and ultimate death

(a) When we look out of a moving vehicle, we see the objects moving in the opposite direction. This motion is referred to as 'sprinting' by the poetess, who when looked out of her moving car, felt as if the trees were running.
(b) The poetess looked at her mother again to reassure herself of her mother’s presence.
(c) The poetess observed that her mother looked pale and weak.
(d) The poetic device that is used in these lines is personification and simile.

As a child, the poet feared losing her mother or her company.

(i) The poet was driving to the airport.
(ii) Her mother's face was looking like that of a corpse because it was pallid and its natural radiance had desiccated with age.
(iii) The poet noticed her mother's pale and 'ashen' face, lost of all vitality and colour, owing to her old age.

The young trees are personified in the poem. They seem to be running in the opposite direction when seen through the window of the moving car. The movement is juxtaposed with the expression on the mother’s face i.e. ashen like a corpse. The movement of the children and the trees is in stark contrast with the stillness associated with the mother.

(a) The poetess was looking out of the car while it was moving. It seemed to her that the objects were moving in the opposite direction. Also, it looked like as if the trees were running. So, she said that the trees sprint.
(b) The poetess looked at her mother again to assure her mother that she would see her again.
(c) The poetess observed that her mother looked pale and weak.
(d) The poetic device that is used in these lines is personification and simile. 
  

a) The poet puts away the painful thought of mother’s ageing and declining health thinking she might not see her mother after returning.
b) The trees appear to be racing past as the car moves towards the airport. They signify the passage of time.
c) These lines symbolise happiness. The sad thoughts of the poet contrasted with merry children spilling out of their homes.