Question:
Write the central idea of the following poem: My Mother at Sixty-six (by Kamala Das)
Write the central idea of the following poem: My Mother at Sixty-six (by Kamala Das)
Updated On: Sep 24, 2026
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Solution and Explanation
Step 1: Recall the poem's core message:
While driving to the airport, the poet notices her mother's pale, aged face and is struck by the fear of losing her.
Step 2: Final Answer:
The central idea is the poet's realisation of her mother's approaching old age and mortality, and the pain and fear that comes with it, momentarily consoled by the sight of young, smiling children outside, before she bids her mother a smiling but sorrowful goodbye, capturing the universal ache of watching a parent age.
While driving to the airport, the poet notices her mother's pale, aged face and is struck by the fear of losing her.
Step 2: Final Answer:
The central idea is the poet's realisation of her mother's approaching old age and mortality, and the pain and fear that comes with it, momentarily consoled by the sight of young, smiling children outside, before she bids her mother a smiling but sorrowful goodbye, capturing the universal ache of watching a parent age.
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It is clear that language is used for more than one purpose. The man who hits his thumb nails with a hammer and utters a string of curses is using language to relieve his feeling and needs no audience but himself. But when a philosopher uses language to clarify his ideas on a subject, he is using it as an instrument of thought. When two women gossip over the fence or two men exchange greetings as they pass in the street, language is being used to strengthen the bonds between the members of society. Language, it seems, is a multipurpose instrument. One function, however, seems to be basic — language enables us to influence people's behaviour and thereby makes human co-operation possible. Some animals co-operate especially the social animals like bees and ants, but human co-operation is more thorough, more detailed, more effective than that found anywhere in the animal kingdom. The human co-operation would be unthinkable without language.
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