(a) What was the childhood fear that now troubled the poet?

Question

Read the extract given below and answer the questions that follow.

…………….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

(a) What was the childhood fear that now troubled the poet? 

(b) What do the poet’s parting words suggest? 

(c) Why did the poet smile and smile? 

(d) Explain, “that old familiar ache.”

Answer 1

(a) As a child the poet was insecure about losing her mother and the same fear has come again now when her mother has grown old. 

(b) The poet, while parting, smiled and said to her mother that she would see her soon. This expression of her suggests that though she was aware that her mother was quite old and weak, yet she could not do anything about it. She could not even communicate her true feelings to her mother. 

(c) The poet smiled and smiled only because she wanted to hide her fears from her mother. She was reassuring herself and also her mother that they would meet again. 

(d) “That old familiar ache” refers to the agony and pain of separation from her mother that the poet felt in her childhood, as she feared that she might iose her mother.