Kumkum Sinha, wife of marine engineer Deonandan Prasad Singh, waits for his body to be brought back home after he was killed in a tanker attack near Iraq's southern port city of Basra.
Over three decades of her husband's career at sea, Kumkum has grown used to the rhythm of months-long voyages, brief homecomings, and reassuring phone calls that bridged the distance between the ocean and home.
But never had she imagined that the sea would bring such news. Singh, an additional chief engineer aboard the Marshall Islands-flagged oil tanker Safesea Vishnu, was killed earlier this week when the vessel was hit near Basra.
The tanker had departed from the Basra oil terminal carrying petroleum cargo and was scheduled to sail to Fujairah in the United Arab Emirates before heading to Singapore.
For the family, however, the tragedy has unfolded far from the turbulent waters where the attack occurred. At their home in India, grief has mingled with uncertainty as they wait for Singh's body to be brought back.
India's Directorate General of Shipping and the Indian embassy in Baghdad are coordinating with Iraqi authorities and the ship's management company to arrange the repatriation of his remains.
The family is now focused on bringing Singh home, but the waiting has been emotionally exhausting for his daughter Komal Singh, a third-year MBBS student at a medical college in Nagpur.
