My Mother At Sixty-Six
By: Kamala das
Date : April 27, 2020
(Ms.Ananya Chugh)
About The Author :KAMALA DAS
Kamala Das was born in , Thrissur
District in Kerala, on March 31, 1934, to V.
M. Nair, a former managing editor of the
widely-circulated Malayalam
daily Mathrubhumi, and Nalappatt Balamani
Amma, a renowned Malayali poetess.
On 31 May 2009, aged 75, she died at a
hospital in Pune. Her body was flown to her
home state of Kerala. She was buried at
the PalayamJuma Masjid
at Thiruvanathapuram with full state honour.
She adopted the name Kamala Surraiah after
she embraced Islam.
CAREER
Das' first book, Summer In Calcutta was a
promising start. She wrote chiefly of love,
its betrayal, and the consequent anguish.
At the age of 42, she published her
autobiography, My Story, which was later
translated into many foreign languages
Kamala Das wrote on a diverse range of
topics, often disparate- from the story of a
poor old servant, about the sexual
disposition of upper middle class women
living near a metropolitan city or in the
middle of the ghetto.
POEM
Driving from my parent’s home to Cochin
last Friday morning,..
•Kamala Das had gone to her
parent’s house .
•She is now going to Cochin
Airport from where she had to
board an airplane for her journey
back home.
…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…
The poetess describes her
mother as old and pale
She looked almost like a
corpse, her face was
colourless and seemed to
have lost the fervour of life
...and looked out at young trees
sprinting, the merry children spilling ou
of their homes…
To drive away the pain
and agony Kamala Das
looked out of the window.
Trees symbolise life and
growth.
Children are symbolic of
youth, vitality, vigour, life
and growth.
…But after the airports security check,
standing a few yards away,…
At the airport they had
to undergo a security
check.
After that, the poet stood
few yards away, and
looked at her mother
again.
..I looked again at her, wan, pale as a late
winter’s moon…
Poet’s mother was aged and hence
looked pale and colourless like a late
winter’s moon.
Winter’s moon lacks luster and
brightness similarly mothers face has
lost radiance and is now misted by
age
The winters moon that appears at the
end of the year also symbolizes the
ebbing state of the mother’s life
... And felt that old familiar ache, my
childhood fear..
Familiar ache refers to the
ache of helplessness; the
pain of separation that
arises at the thought of
mother’s death.
Childhood fear refers to the
fear of losing her mother,
getting separated from her
or that death would
consume her mother
…but all I said was, see you soon,
Amma, all I did was smile and smile and
smile……
Kamala Das bids a formal adieu to her
mother with the hope of seeing her soon.
She smiles only to hide her anxiety and
fear of the unknown.
She also wants to bid a cheerful farewell
to her mother before she boards the
flight.
The poetess tries to put up a brave front
in order to hide her true feelings of pain
at seeing her old and weak mother.
Her smile also reflects her optimism.
Some Characteristics of Youth and
Old age
Old age Youth
Grandparents Cheerful
Grey Green
Death Birth
Loss of memory Games
Doze Activity
Ashen face Energetic
Corpse Lively
Pale Merry
Wan Sprinting
Something About The most used figure
of speech in the poem
A simile is a figure of speech that draws a
comparison between two different things, especially a
phrase containing the word “like” or “as”.
Sleeping like a log
My Love is like a red, red rose (Robert Burns)
Idle as a painted ship upon a painted ocean
(S. T. Coleridge)
Examples from the poem:
Like that of a corpse
As a late winter’s moon
Repetition:
It is the repeated occurrence of a word in the
same line.
Smile and smile and smile
Contrast:
her face like that of a corpse/ trees sprinting, the
merry children playing ,etc.
Old age/ youth
Appraisal of the Title
The title, “My Mother at Sixty-six” is an excellent example of
showing an ever unfailing relationship between a daughter and
her mother. Nostalgia smeared in
separation appears to be the default setting of the poem. The title
scrutinizes every mother lumbers towards the age, 66, with care
or without care. But this very mother gets to the same age
through the growing eyes of her daughter. The number 66 also
points out to the beginning of double quotation marks. It seems
Kamala Das indicates the estrangement has just begun, and it's
absolutely way afar to meet the end.
It also sounds a little ambiguous, since the daughter, for the first
time, notices her mother has stepped into the wrong box of sixty
six. In some Hermetic systems, 6 means "beauty," and the
speaker's mother appears more beautiful. 6 + 6= 12, the number
of signs in the Zodiac, and so may represent the totality of
HOMEWORK
Read the poem, and frame a self –
made summary of the poetry.
Revise all the poetic devices used in the
poem.
For practice of additional extract based
questions refer to Edumantra.net.
