Read the following poem and answer the questions that follow : Mother, I am…
Read the following poem and answer the questions that follow :
Mother, I am the one
you sent away
when the doctor told you
I would be
a girl – In the end they had to
give me an injection to kill me.
Before I died I heard
the traffic rushing outside, the monsoon
slush, the wind sulking through
your beloved Mumbai –
I could have clutched the neon blue
no one wanted –
No one wanted
To touch me – except later in the
autopsy room
when they knew my mouth would not
search
for anything – and my head could be
measured
and bent cut apart.
I looked like a sliced pomegranate.
The fruit you never touched.
Mother, I am the one you sent away
When the doctor told you
I would be a girl – your second girl.
Afterwards, as soon as you could
you put on your grass – green sari –
the orange stems of the parijatak
blossoms
glistened in your hair –
Afterwards
everyone smiled.
But now I ask you
to look for me, mother,
look for me because
I won't come to you in your dreams,
Look for me, mother, look
because I won't become a flower
I won't turn into a butterfly
And I am not a part of anyone's song.
Look, mother,
look for the place where you have
sent me.
Look for the unspeakable.
for the place that can never be described.
Look for me, mother, because
this is what you have done.
Look for me, mother, because
this is not 'God's will'.
Look for me, mother
because I smell of formaldehyde –
I smell of formaldehyde
and still, I wish you would look
for me, mother.
Q. Find a word from the poem which means "post mortem" :
Answer: D. autopsy — ConceptA "find-the-word" question asks you to locate the single word in the poem whose dictionary meaning matches the given phrase, not merely any word that…
- A.
formaldehyde
- B.
injection to kill
- C.
neon blue
- D.
autopsy
Attempted by 4 students.
Show answer & explanation
Correct answer: D
Concept
A "find-the-word" question asks you to locate the single word in the poem whose dictionary meaning matches the given phrase, not merely any word that appears in the same scene. "Post-mortem" denotes the medical examination of a body carried out after death to establish the cause of death; this examination is formally named an autopsy.
Application
In the poem, the aborted speaker recalls being handled by others "except later in the autopsy room" — the poem itself names this examination using the word "autopsy," the precise dictionary match for "post-mortem."
Contrast with the other options
"Formaldehyde" names the chemical used to preserve a body once death has already occurred — a preservative, not a term for the examination itself.
"Injection to kill" names the act that causes death, occurring before it — not a term for an examination performed afterward.
"Neon blue" is a colour image from an earlier line, with no medical or examination-related meaning at all.
None of these carries the meaning "examination of a body after death"; only "autopsy" does, so it is the word from the poem that means "post mortem."