"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 thought away"

(a) The poet had gone to her parent's home to visit them. She was now going to Cochin from where she had to board an aeroplane for her journey back home.

(b) The poet's mother was sitting beside her in the car. She was travelling with the poet to Cochin to see her off at the airport.

(c) The poet describes her mother as old and pale. As she dozed off beside her, the mother looked almost like a corpse, for her face was colourless and seemed to have lost the fervour of life.

(d) 'She' here refers to the poet's mother. Like all elderly people, she also suffered from the pain of loneliness and wanted her children to be with them. However, she seemed to have accepted her seclusion with quiet resignation, reconciling herself with the circumstances and compulsions of life.

(e) The mother’s face looking like that of a corpse because she was getting old and weak

(f) The poet notice that her mother was ageing and slowly inching towards death.