My Mother at Sixty-six by Kamala Das

Hello everybody, hope that you all are fine. In this blog I am going to talk about the poet Kamala Das, then there will be the poem My Mother at Sixty-six and it will be followed by the theme of the poem and word meanings.

My Mother at Sixty-six

About the poet: Kamala Das is the pen name (nom de plume) of Madhavi Kutty. She was born on 31^st March 1934 at Punnayurkulum in Kerala. She is one of the greatest poets of India. She is known for her indigenous style and flovour of poetry. She wrote many novels and short stories. Her poetic creations are contained in four volumes. They are: Summer in Calcutta (1965), The Descendants (1967), The Old Playhouse and Other Poems (1973) and Stranger Time (1977). Apart from writing in English she also wrote in her mother tongue, Malayalam. She was a very sensitive writer who could deal with intricate human psychology. She died on 31^st May 2009 in Pune of Maharashtra. My Mother at Sixty-six was written in 1999.

My Mother at Sixty-Six

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

away, 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......

Theme of the poem:

The poem is all about aging and fear of loss and separation. The poet looks at her mother and is worried about advancing age.

Word Meanings:

1. ashen pale

2. corpse dead body

3. sprinting running

4. merry happy

5. spilling moving out quickly

6. wan looking pale and weak

7. ache pain

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