Option 1 -> The passage states that when Maya prepared her mother's recipe, despite it not tasting perfect, she "felt a fleeting connection to home, as if she had carried a piece of it with her."
Option 2 -> Alienation from her mother would create distance, not connection to India.
Option 3 -> Though the meal wasn't perfect, it was the attempt and experience of cooking/eating traditional food that created connection, not the failure itself.
Option 4 -> The photographs and books are mentioned when describing her feeling "split in two," not as a source of connection to India.
Hence, Option 1: the cultural nostalgia of traditional Indian food -> The passage explicitly shows that despite the imperfect recreation of her mother's recipe, the act of cooking and eating traditional Indian food gave Maya "a fleeting connection to home," making her feel she carried a piece of India within her despite the geographical distance -> correct