Born to landless Indian farmers, Sunil Pooniya thought a job at sea would be his ticket out of poverty, instead his first voyage saw him diving into the ocean to escape a deadly attack driven by the Iran war.
For hundreds of thousands of Indians, merchant shipping jobs are a lucrative proposition despite the inherent risks.
The attack on Pooniya's ship killed two fellow Indians -- the country's sailors are among the highest merchant maritime casualties from the Middle East war.