India, May 10 -- Among the many essay prompts I present to students preparing to tell their life stories, the one that consistently gets left behind is the one on gratitude. "Too vague," some say. "Too boring," others dismiss. And yet, I gently linger on it. I watch their expressions when I ask, "Who has really changed your life in a way you didn't expect?" It is in that pause-awkward, silent, and untrained-that the first crack appears in the wall of self-presentation. Why do so few choose gratitude when given the chance? Perhaps because true gratitude asks us to soften. It's not performative. It's not competitive. It asks for reflection, for surrender of pride, for the courage to acknowledge that we didn't do it all alone. In The Inner C...