Session-2023-2024

ENGLISH PROJECT
WORK
TOPIC :- ‘MY MOTHER AT SIXTY SIX’

SUBMITTED BY :- SUBMITTED TO :- Kavita

Mam
NAME : Sonu srivastav
CLASS : XII D
ROLL NO.
 INDEX
S CONTENTS PAGE REMARKS
NO.
1 COVER PAGE 1

2 CERTIFICATE 2

3 ACKNOWLEDGMENT 3

4 INDEX 4

5 POEM 5-6

6 BIOGRAPHY OF – 7-8
KAMALA DAS
7 INTRODUCTION 9

8 SOCIAL MESSAGE 10

9 SUMMARY 11 - 12

10 EXPLANATION 13 - 14

11 POETIC DEVICES 15

12 CONCLUSION 16

13 BIBLIOGRAPHY 17

14 TEACHER’S REMARK 18
 Acknowledgement
I would like to convey my heartfelt gratitude Kavita
Mam for his tremendous support and assistance in
the completion of my project. I would also like to
thank him for providing me with this wonderful
opportunity to work on a project with the topic “Social
Message Given by Kamala Das Through her Poem :
My Mother at Sixty Six”
.
Secondly, I would also like to thank my parents and
teachers who helped me in finalizing this project in limited
time frame.
POEM: My Mother At Sixty Six
—by KAMALA DAS

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 yard
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......
BIOGRAPHY OF—KAMALA DAS

The poet, Kamala Das also wrote by her pen-name of

‘Madhavikutty’. She was born in Kerala and is one of India’s first
poets. Her subject matter is basically related to her personality-
beautiful, sensitive, bold and tormented. External factors do not
reflect in her writings, her writings bring out her true
inner feelings. In the poem ‘My Mother at Sixty-Six’, she talks
about her mother. This poem is based on mother-daughter
relation and the poet shares her feelings for her mother. She
grew up in what is now Kerala and in Calcutta (now
Kolkata), where her
father worked. She began writing poetry when she was a
child. When she was 15 years old, she married Madhava Das,
a banking executive many years her senior, and they moved to
Bombay (now Mumbai). Das had three sons and did her
writing at night.
Awards and Other Recognitions
Kamala Das has received many awards for her literary
contribution, including:
 1963: PEN Asian Poetry Prize
 1968: KeralA Sahitya Akademi Award for Story –
Thanuppu
 1984: Shortlisted for the Nobel Prize in Literature
 1985: Kendra Sahitya Academy Award (English) –
Collected Poems
 1988: Kerala State Film Award for Best Story
 1997: Vayalar Award – Neermathalam Pootha Kalam
 1998: Asian Poetry Prize
 2002: Ezhuthachan Award
 2006: Honorary D.Litt by University of Calicut
 2006: Muttathu Varkey Award
 INTRODUCTION
My mother at sixty-six is a poem whose author is Kamala
Das. The writer is famous for capturing the complications of
relationships between human beings. This poem is one of the best
examples of bonding in humans. Especially the bond between a
mother and a daughter. This poem defines the fear of the
author of losing her mother. My mother at sixty-six summary
will elaborate on the feelings of the author and will also define
the meaning of the poem.
my mother at sixty six summary revolves around the beautiful
relationship between the poet and her mother. The summary
shows the theme of the advancing age of the mother of the author
and the fear of separation. This apparently short poem touches
upon the theme of a beautiful bond between the mother and the
daughter. It shows how beautiful a relationship a mother and a
daughter can have.
 SOCIAL MESSAGE
Aging is an important phase of human life. A person enters
his childhood, experiences youth when he is full of energy
and dreams to have luxury of life. Finally, he approaches his
old age and encounters death. Relationship between people
becomes stronger at every aspect of life and they can’t bear
separation due to aging. In this poem, the poet relates a
personal experience. She brings out a common paradox of
human relationships and portrays a sensational separation
of a mother and a daughter. She has been able to capture
almost all the emotions which a daughter is filled with, on
bidding farewell to her beloved mother. Sometimes we do
feel deep sympathy for someone but we fail to express it in a
proper manner.

Ageing is an inescapable phase of every human’s life. A

person enters their childhood, experiences adolescence when
they are energetic and have so many dreams. Finally, every
person approaches their old age and then they die.
Relationships between people become much stronger in every
phase of life. No one can’t bear the separation from their
loved ones just because of ageing.
 SUMMARY
This is a touching poem written by Indian poet Kamla Das
who wrote under the pen name of ‘Madhavikutty’. In this
poem, she describes her feeling of love and attachment towards
her ageing mother. Once the poet went to visit her mother.
She was on her way back to the airport to return to Cochin.
She looked at her mother who was seated beside her in the
car. Her mother had dozed off to sleep and her ageing face -
was smoky in colour like ash. Her mouth was open and she
resembled a dead body. The poet realized that her mother
was old. She felt pain and sympathy for her. Her mother
needed love, affection and care. In order to come out of the
gloom, the poet shifted her glance and looked out of the
car’s window. There she saw young trees pass by. Little
children were running out of their houses into the playgrounds.
These things were contrary to the ageing face of her mother.
They symbolised energy, life and happiness. As they reached the
airport and the poet was about to leave for the aeroplane,
she glanced at her mother one more time. Her mother
appeared weak and pale just like the moon in the winter
season which seems to have lost all its strength. The poet felt
the pain and fear of losing her mother. She was reminded of
her childhood when she used to fear losing her mother.
As a child she could not bear to be separated from her
mother even for a few moments. Now the loss would be
permanent as her mother was about to die and she would
lose her forever.The poet did not express her feelings. She
smiled and said “see you soon, Amma” because she wanted
that her mother should live and they could meet again.
 EXPLANATION
Firstly, when the poet is on her way to the cochin airport
with her old mother sitting beside her, she looks at her
closely and presents before us her image. She compares her
with a corpse. (simile is a figure of speech to show
comparison between her mother’s face and a corpse.) As
she looks at her mother’s pale and pallid face, she is struck
with the horror and pain of losing her. The mother with the
dozing face and open mouth is compared to a corpse. Here,
the poet shows the typical love and affection which is present
in a mother-daughter relation.
The poet is pained and shifts her attention outside the car
in order to drive out the negative feelings. She changes her
sad mood. The scene outside the window is of growing life
and energy. The rapidly sprinting trees alongside the merrily
playing children symbolize life, youth and vitality. The poet
here is reminded of her own childhood when her mother
had been young whereas now, she is encircled with the fear
of losing her and that has made her insecure.
She is at the airport to take a flight. It indicates departure
and separation which creates melancholy. As she bids goodbye to
her mother, the image of the old, wan, worn out mother in
the twilight of years strikes her again. Here again a similie is
used to compare her mother with a late winter’s moon
whose light is obstacle by fog and mist As she looks old now,
her personality is affected by it.
The poet is feeling the pain of separation, leaving her
mother and going. Also, herchildhood fear of losing her
mother which she feels that earlier was temporary but now,
could be forever as she could die of old age, is haunting her.
She is so pained that it is natural for herto cry but keeping
a brave front she hides her tears and smiles.She bids
farewell to her mother and keeping her hope of seeing her
again alive, says“see you soon, Amma”. She hides her
sorrow as she does not want to create a
painfulenvironment for her mother and conveys her that as
she is enjoying her life similarly her mothershould also be
happy and enjoy her life (The poem revolves around the
theme of advancing age and the fear that adheres to its loss
and separation. It is a sentimental account of the mother’s
approaching end through the eyes of the daughter. The
seemingly short poem touches upon the theme of the filial
bond between the mother and daughter smeared in the
backdrop of nostalgia and fear. Nostalgia of the past (the
time spent with the mother) and fear of the future without
her.)
It is a short poem, without a full stop, the poem is like a
long sentence, over flowing thought process. The poet uses the
device of comparison and contrast, simile and repetition.
 POETIC DEVICES
Following poetic devices have been used in the poem My
Mother at Sixty-Six.
1. Simile: it is the comparison of two things by using as or
like.
e.g. “her face ashen like that of a corpse”, “as a late
winter’s moon”.
2. Metaphor: it is the direct comparison of two things without the
use of as or like. e.g. “the merry children spilling”.
3. Personification: When we give human characteristics
to animals or plants or non- living things. e.g. “trees sprinting”.
4. Anaphora: It is the repetition of a word or phrase to
create a poetic effect in a poem. e.g. the poet repeats these
words, “smile and smile and smile”.
5. Alliteration: It is the repetition of the consonant sounds in
a line of a poem. e.g. “my mother”, “that thought”, “I said was,
see you soon”
 CONCLUSION
To conclude, my mother at sixty six summary revolves around
the beautiful relationship between the poet and her mother.
The summary shows the theme of the advancing age of the
mother of the author and the fear of separation. This
apparently short poem touches upon the theme of a beautiful
bond between the mother and the daughter. It shows how
beautiful a relationship a mother and a daughter can have.
Ageing is an inescapable phase of every human’s life. A
person enters their childhood, experiences adolescence when
they are energetic and have so many dreams. Finally, every
person approaches their old age and then they die.
Relationships between people become much stronger in
every phase of life. No one can’t bear the separation from
their loved ones just because of ageing.
 BIBLIOGRAPHY-
For successfully completing my project file I have taken help
from the following website links :-

 www.youtube.com
 www.wikepedia.com
 Google images
 www.brainly.com

BOOKS:-
 Flamingo—NCERT Textbook
 CERTIFICATE
This is to Certify that Sonu srivastav of class XII ‘D’of RSV-
No.4 Roop Nagar has successfully completed the English project on the
topic " Social Message Given by Kamala Das Through her
Poem : My Mother at Sixty Six’’ as prescribed by the CBSE Board
for the Academic Year 2023-234It is further certified that theproject is
Individual Work of the Candidate.

External's Signature -:
Internal's Signature-:
Principal’s Signature-: