Class 12 English · Original EZT practice
My Mother at Sixty-six - Kamala Das (Class 12 English, Flamingo, Poem 1)
My Mother at Sixty-six is Poem 1 in the Poetry section of Class 12 Flamingo (Reprint 2026-27, pp. 88-89), Kamala Das's single-sentence poem of a daughter's parting from her ageing mother. 'Driving from my parent's home to Cochin last Friday morning', the poet watches her mother doze, 'her face ashen like that of a corpse', looks away to 'Young Trees sprinting, the merry children spilling out of their homes', and at the airport sees her 'wan, pale as a late winter's moon' - yet says only 'see you soon, Amma'. This page gives the poem's scene, images, theme and fresh practice questions. (Note: this is original practice, not a textbook exercise key.)
6 original worked examples, 6 fresh self-check questions and 4 mixed questions, with explained answers. These are not copied textbook exercises, an official chapter index or a full answer key. No affiliation with NCERT is claimed.
Official sources for topic and edition context, checked 24 October 2026:
1. The poem's scene
In the car: beside the poet, her mother dozes 'open mouthed, her face ashen like that of a corpse'; the daughter 'realised with pain that she was as old as she looked'. Looking away: she 'soon put that thought away' and turns to the world outside - 'Young Trees sprinting, the merry children spilling out of their homes'. At the airport: after the security check, 'standing a few yards' away, she looks again - her mother is 'wan, pale as a late winter's moon' - 'and felt that old familiar ache, my childhood's fear'. The parting: 'but all I said was, see you soon, Amma, all I did was smile and smile and smile......'
2. Images and contrasts
'ashen like that of a corpse': the dozing mother's face drained of colour - age and the thought of loss enter together. 'Young Trees sprinting, the merry children spilling out of their homes': rushing life and youth outside the window, set against the still, sleeping mother inside the car. 'wan, pale as a late winter's moon': the mother at parting - pale, dimmed, waning like a winter moon. 'that old familiar ache, my childhood's fear': the fear of losing a parent is not new; it has lived in the daughter since childhood. 'smile and smile and smile': the repeated smile is a brave face held up against the ache - a farewell that hides what it feels.
3. Theme and word meanings
Ageing and parting: a daughter confronts her mother's age - 'as old as she looked' - on an ordinary drive to the airport. The child's enduring fear: 'my childhood's fear' - the dread of separation from a parent - returns unchanged in adulthood. Love held behind a smile: the poem ends not in tears but in 'see you soon, Amma' and smiling - tenderness expressed by concealment. Word meanings (textbook-flagged expressions, explained): sprinting - short fast race, running (textbook gloss); wan - colourless (textbook gloss); ashen - pale grey, drained of colour; spilling out - pouring out in a crowd; ache - a dull, lasting pain, here an emotional one.
Choose, solve, check, then try a fresh question.
Before calculating, read the method prompt and name the condition that makes it useful. Write your own attempt. Open the steps only when you need them, and use the check to catch a wrong sign, unit or interpretation. Finish with the fresh question before reading its answer.
Fix the journey
Choose the method: From, to, when.
EZT practice question
Where is the poet driving from and to, and when?
Show the worked solution
- The poem opens mid-motion: 'Driving from my parent's home to Cochin last Friday morning'.
- From: her parent's home. To: Cochin. When: last Friday morning.
- The ordinary errand matters - the confrontation with age arrives on an ordinary drive.
Answer: 'Driving from my parent's home to Cochin last Friday morning' - from her parent's home to Cochin, last Friday morning.
Check: All three coordinates - from, to, when - in the opening line.
Watch for this: Do not say she is driving her mother to the airport directly - the drive is to Cochin; the airport security check comes at the journey's end.
Now try it yourself
What does the poet see her mother do beside her in the car?
Check your answer
She dozes 'open mouthed, her face ashen like that of a corpse', and the poet 'realised with pain that she was as old as she looked'.
The sleeping face forces the realisation the daughter has been avoiding.
Track the look-away
Choose the method: Pain managed by distraction.
EZT practice question
What does the poet do with the painful thought, and what does she look at instead?
Show the worked solution
- The thought: her mother is 'as old as she looked'.
- The move: she 'soon put that thought away'.
- The replacement view: 'Young Trees sprinting, the merry children spilling out of their homes'.
Answer: She 'soon put that thought away, and looked out at Young Trees sprinting, the merry children spilling out of their homes'.
Check: The putting-away and the two images that replace the thought.
Watch for this: Do not read the look-away as coldness - it is self-protection, and the ache returns at the airport.
Now try it yourself
Why do the young trees and merry children hurt as much as they distract?
Check your answer
They are rushing life and youth, set against the still, sleeping, ageing mother - the contrast keeps the thought alive.
The distraction describes the very thing it avoids.
Time the second look
Choose the method: After the security check.
EZT practice question
When does the poet look at her mother again, and how does her mother appear?
Show the worked solution
- The moment: 'After the airport's security check, standing a few yards' away.
- The look: she 'looked again at her'.
- The appearance: 'wan, pale as a late winter's moon'.
Answer: 'After the airport's security check, standing a few yards' - she looks again: her mother is 'wan, pale as a late winter's moon'.
Check: The security-check timing, the few yards of distance, and the winter-moon image.
Watch for this: Do not confuse the two looks - the corpse image belongs to the car, the winter-moon image to the airport.
Now try it yourself
What feeling returns at the airport, worded exactly?
Check your answer
'and felt that old familiar ache, my childhood's fear'.
The parting reopens a fear she has carried since childhood.
Date the fear
Choose the method: Old, familiar, childhood's.
EZT practice question
Which words in the poem tell us the poet's fear at the airport is not new?
Show the worked solution
- Find the feeling line: she 'felt that old familiar ache, my childhood's fear'.
- 'Old' and 'familiar' mark it as long-standing, not born at the airport.
- 'My childhood's fear' dates it: the dread of losing her mother has lived in her since childhood.
Answer: 'felt that old familiar ache, my childhood's fear' - the ache is old and familiar, reaching back to childhood.
Check: All three markers - old, familiar, childhood's.
Watch for this: Do not read the fear as fear of the flight - it is the fear of separation from her mother, of losing her to age.
Now try it yourself
How does the airport image prepare this feeling?
Check your answer
The mother is 'wan, pale as a late winter's moon' - pale and waning - so the look calls up the old ache of losing her.
The image carries the fear before the fear is named.
Notice the sentence
Choose the method: One sentence, whole poem.
EZT practice question
What is unusual about the poem's sentence structure, as the textbook points out?
Show the worked solution
- The textbook's notice: the whole poem is 'a single sentence'.
- It is punctuated by commas, carrying 'a single thread of thought interspersed with observations of the real world around'.
- The effect: one unbroken movement from the car to the parting, like the drive itself.
Answer: The whole poem is a single sentence punctuated by commas - 'a single thread of thought interspersed with observations of the real world around'.
Check: The single-sentence fact and the single-thread-of-thought description.
Watch for this: Do not call the commas careless - they are how one thought keeps moving through observed scenes without stopping.
Now try it yourself
Which images does that single thread pass through, in order?
Check your answer
The dozing mother 'ashen like that of a corpse'; 'Young Trees sprinting, the merry children spilling out of their homes'; the mother 'wan, pale as a late winter's moon'; the final 'smile and smile and smile'.
Car, window, airport, parting - one breath the length of the journey.
Read the last line
Choose the method: What is said, what is hidden.
EZT practice question
How does the poem end, and what does the repeated smile do?
Show the worked solution
- The words said: 'see you soon, Amma'.
- The action: 'all I did was smile and smile and smile......'
- The work of the smile: it offers the mother reassurance while keeping 'that old familiar ache' hidden - tenderness expressed by concealment.
Answer: 'but all I said was, see you soon, Amma, all I did was smile and smile and smile......' - the repeated smile holds a brave face over the ache.
Check: The parting words, the tripled smile, and what it conceals.
Watch for this: Do not say the smile shows acceptance or peace - the ache stays; the smile is for the mother, not for the poet.
Now try it yourself
Why 'Amma' and not 'mother' at the parting?
Check your answer
The intimate home-word carries the daughter's tenderness - the child's word for the childhood fear.
One word collapses adult and child into the same daughter.
Try a mixed set
Choose a method or explanation before opening each answer.
1. The opening line's journey?
Show answer and reason
'Driving from my parent's home to Cochin last Friday morning.'
An ordinary drive carries the poem's confrontation with age.
2. The mother in the car?
Show answer and reason
Dozing 'open mouthed, her face ashen like that of a corpse.'
The daughter 'realised with pain that she was as old as she looked'.
3. The airport image?
Show answer and reason
'wan, pale as a late winter's moon.'
Pale and waning - the look calls up 'that old familiar ache, my childhood's fear'.
4. The parting?
Show answer and reason
'see you soon, Amma' - 'all I did was smile and smile and smile......'
Tenderness expressed by concealment.
Try it yourself
Work these on paper before checking any notes. Answers are deliberately not shown here.
- In two sentences, explain how the 'Young Trees sprinting' image works against the sleeping mother.
- Trace the poem's two looks at the mother - in the car and at the airport - quoting the image attached to each.
- Explain in your own words what the final 'smile and smile and smile' hides and why the poet chooses it.
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Questions about this practice page
- Who wrote My Mother at Sixty-six?
- Kamala Das (1934-2009), born in Malabar, Kerala, 'one of India's foremost poets'; she also published novels and short stories in English and Malayalam under the name 'Madhavikutty', alongside five books of poetry.
- What is My Mother at Sixty-six about?
- A daughter driving her ageing mother from her parent's home to Cochin airport; watching her doze 'ashen like that of a corpse', she feels her childhood fear of loss return, yet parts with 'see you soon, Amma' and a smile.
- What images does Kamala Das use in My Mother at Sixty-six?
- The mother's 'ashen' corpse-like face; 'Young Trees sprinting'; 'merry children spilling out of their homes'; and the mother at parting 'wan, pale as a late winter's moon'.
- How does My Mother at Sixty-six end?
- With the parting at the airport: 'all I said was, see you soon, Amma, all I did was smile and smile and smile......' - reassurance offered while the ache stays hidden.
- Where is My Mother at Sixty-six in the Class 12 book?
- Poem 1 in the Poetry section of the Flamingo core-course textbook (Reprint 2026-27, pp. 88-89), by Kamala Das.