Read the given passage and answer the four questions that follow:-
Maya sat by the window of her apartment in Boston, watching the snowfall coat the streets in silence. The winter here was nothing like the winters she had known as a child in Kolkata, where the chill in the air was softened by the warmth of family gatherings. She thought of her mother's kitchen, the scent of frying luchis and the distant hum of the morning news on the radio. Here, the mornings were different—quiet, lonely, and marked by the distant sound of car engines outside.
The phone rang, jolting her from her thoughts. It was her father, calling from India. "When are you coming to visit us?" he asked, his voice tinged with both hope and sadness. Maya hesitated. It had been two years since her last trip home and with each passing year, the distance seemed to grow—not just geographically but emotionally.
She glanced at the bookshelves in her living room, filled with English novels and photographs of friends from college. Somewhere between these shelves and the memories of her childhood, Maya felt split in two, as if she belonged fully to neither world.
Later that evening, as she prepared dinner, she tried recreating one of her mother's recipes. The spices didn't taste the same, the aroma felt incomplete. But as she sat down to eat, she felt a fleeting connection to home, as if she had carried a piece of it with her despite the miles.
Although Maya feels divided between two worlds, ____ makes her feel that she carries a piece of India within her.
Answer & explanation
Correct answer: option 1
The correct answer is Option (1) → the cultural nostalgia of traditional Indian food
In the evening Maya cooks one of her mother's recipes. The taste is not the same, but as she eats she feels a fleeting connection to home, "as if she had carried a piece of it with her". It is the longing for the food of home (nostalgia, a fond longing for the past) that makes her feel she carries a piece of India within her.
Why the Other Options are Incorrect?
Option 2: sense of alienation from her mother — Incorrect. Contradicted: alienation means a feeling of being cut off. Maya is not cut off from her mother; she thinks of her mother's kitchen with warmth and tries to cook her recipe.
Option 3: her failure to cook a meal like her mother — Incorrect. Wrong cause: the spices did not taste the same, but the passage says she felt the connection in spite of this, not because of the failure.
Option 4: the photographs and books on her shelf — Incorrect. Wrong link: the shelves hold English novels and photographs of college friends; they belong to her new life and make her feel split in two, not connected to India.