BEING IN KOCHI, I should know how crucial bridges are. I cross a short one to get to the office, and another if I want to visit my sons. In the absence of three bridges, I would have had to swim home. My hometown, Kottayam, too, is ringed with bridges big and small. So, my bond with bridges is quite strong, you see.

A bridge offers a connection to something that was not easily accessible before—literally and metaphorically. It offers safety from the treacherous waters below. It promotes two-way traffic, a give-and-take bond. It also offers a level of guarantee, even as tides rise and fall and times turn fickle. So, I take my hat off to bridges, bridge-makers and Manu Bhaker, THE WEEK Woman of the Year 2024.

Now, I know what you’re thinking—what’s with the double Olympic medallist and bridges? Turn to Page 55 to read what her coach Jaspal Rana told Photo Editor Salil Bera and Correspondent Niladry Sarkar about the gap that formed between them after Tokyo 2020. They had stopped talking to each other.

“Her biggest strength is that she had the guts to call me saying she wanted to train under me again,” said Rana. “I think she needed a lot of courage to do that. I wouldn’t have made the call despite all the maturity I have.” See, bridge-maker, like I said. And, I must also acknowledge Rana’s honesty which prompted him to say that he would not have done the same thing. While Bhaker has been covered in detail after Paris 2024, it is insights like these that make this cover story special.

Another major story is the one on Ukraine, one thousand days into the war. Photo Editor Bhanu Prakash Chandra recalls his Ukraine visit against the backdrop of Donald Trump’s re-election and the fatigue that Ukrainian forces are facing. Hotel Sapphire in Kramatorsk, where Bhanu stayed, is a heap of rubble today.

Closer to home, the Malayala Manorama’s Special Correspondent Javed Parvesh writes from Manipur on the escalation of conflict and the recent killings in Jiribam. For the past 18 months, the state has been on the boil and it has been pleading for peacemakers and bridge-builders. In India, most of us believe that we serve God in some small way. In The Beatitudes, Christ says this: “Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God.”

Coming back to Bhaker and people who shun their ego for a bigger cause or for a loved one’s joy, I am reminded of my maternal grandfather, after whom I am named. He was a government doctor in the erstwhile Madras Presidency, and so the family moved wherever he served. My mother was born in Polavaram, Andhra Pradesh, and grew up in Madurai, Coimbatore, Tiruchirappalli and Lalgudi.

Amma was enrolled in school as Annamma Philip, but soon realised that she was the only one with a second name in a sea of ‘ammals’ with initials! Tailambal. Lachmi Ammal. Pattammal and so on. She went home and moped. My soft-hearted grandfather then wrote to the headmaster for her name to be changed. Thus, she became P. Annammal for the rest of her school life.

My father maintained that Amma’s biggest blessing was a father who happily shrank himself into an initial just for his daughter’s happiness.

Big-hearted bridge-makers, you see.