Agastya is too young to understand what the fuss is all about. As soon as his father arrived at the international airport, he was mobbed. There was shouting, sloganeering and even garlands and drums for company. The din around him drowned out this one and a half year old's crying. But it's only natural that he doesn't want to share his father's time with anyone else. Certainly not when his father, Chief Officer Chetan Syam, is back with his family for the first time in 18 months.

Back with the scars of December 2007 and the days that followed. Chetan and Captain Jasprit Chawla were on board the Hebei Spirit, a very large crude carrier (VLCC) that was safely docked at the port of Daesan in South Korea. Around 4 am local time, a Samsung Heavy Industries-owned barge hit their VLCC leading to an oil spill off the West coast of South Korea. A story that many would now be familiar with. But even as the smiles are back on their faces, in Captain Chawla's words- there were many times he didn't think he would make it. In custody away from his chief officer, he spent his first night in isolation in a cell so small he could barely stretch his hands. The stench got to him as he froze in sub-zero temperatures. He had to use the same pit to wash his hands, brush his teeth and even for his morning routine. Even the interrogation was not easy. It went on for 20 hours a day and for days on end. And there was no way of knowing whether the translator was telling it like it was.

No doubt their families and their shipping company stood rock-solid behind them all the way but every moment in that foreign land must have been killing, especially when the Embassy there initially 'didn't have anyone to send over to jail to check on them'. Imagine watching your little child on the other side of a glass wall, his eyes meeting yours, his hands stretched out to touch yours but there's no contact. A few minutes later, he has to leave, wondering why his father can't take him in his arms and why his mother is crying.

Captain Chawla's wife, Gurpreet, shuttled between India and Korea, fighting alongside her husband and then returning in time for her son's exams. In fact her younger son thought that papa had a different home in Korea. The older sibling, now 8 years old, was aware that something was amiss but it was only when his grades started falling in school that the impact his father's imprisonment had had on him finally hit home. Even now, he clings to his father refusing to let go. He's still not sure he's here to stay.

It's this kind of trauma they have survived that sometimes gets lost in the story itself. Surely, both Captain Chawla and Chief Officer Chetan Syam are symbols of courage and conviction across the world. They know they played by the book, but were punished for no fault of theirs. But on this journey, they have both paid a heavy personal price. And their battle isn't over yet. They still have the charge of pollution attached to their names, a charge they are now determined to do away with.