Dr. Moopan with the former Indian Consul General at the start of a siff football tournament in Jeddah. (Courtesy photos)DR. Abdulla Moopan sits across from me during our chat and his composure makes me painfully aware of how woefully unprepared I am for this. How do you ask someone to sum up his life over the past 28 years in one hour? But Dr. Moopan is a unique individual and his razor sharp memory seems to recall everything from the past three decades in perfect chronological order, almost as if he was reading to me from a memoir of his life. Hailing from the state of Kerala in India, Dr. Moopan arrived in Saudi Arabia in 1983 on contract with the Ministry of Health to work as a Consultant Psychiatrist at King Fahd Hospital in Jeddah, where he worked until 2004. He has since been working at Al-Abeer Medical Center in Jeddah where he is the General Director. Dr. Moopan arrived here like many other young expatriate doctors with his wife Fouzia and daughter Rubina. Incidentally, his wife was also employed by the Ministry of Health at the maternity and pediatric hospital at King Fahd and retired only last year. Following in her parents' footsteps, his daughter also chose to become a doctor and after completing her secondary education at the Indian International School in Jeddah (IISJ), she studied medicine at the Kasturba Medical College in Manipal, India, and then spent six years training in hospitals in the UK. She is now working for a super-speciality hospital in Bangalore. In many ways, he reminds me of my own father, who arrived here in the early eighties and succeeded in making this country our second home. I mention this to Dr. Moopan who enthusiastically agrees with the sentiment. “In fact, that is exactly what King Abdullah once said on a trip to India,” he remarked. “He said ‘India is like my second home' and that statement inspired a lot of Indian expatriates living and working here.” One of those people seems to be Dr. Moopan himself, whose contribution to social welfare in the Indian community here remains untold but immensely significant. He is an exceptionally humble individual, glossing over his achievements as if they are nothing significant and protesting that he does not want to come across as self-promoting. It is a bit more difficult for others to be so indifferent. At a glance, Dr. Moopan is the founding president of the Saudi Indian Football Federation (SIFF), founding member of the cultural organization Kairali, Patron of the cultural organization Kerala Kalasahithi, President of the Jeddah chapter of the Kerala-based Muslim Educational Society, Founding President of the Saudi Kerala Doctors Forum, Founding President of the World Malayalee Council (Jeddah chapter) and President of the Indo-Saudi Medical Forum. He has also been the president of the Indian Executive Club, a member of the management committee in the India Forum and Founding President of the Indian Educational Council, which has the patronage of the Indian consulate here. Whether it is in sports, education, culture, welfare or his own profession, Dr. Moopan has gone above and beyond the call of duty. “What you see now is not how things were 20, 30 years ago,” he explained. “At that time, the community was the same but people were more cautious and closed in. Now, they have become more open about organizing events.” Perhaps this is why Dr. Moopan's involvement seems all the more praise worthy. That and the fact that he has shunned the glamour and limelight associated with most well-known community organizations and aimed to work for the common man. “I was always more involved with the common people,” he noted. “I wanted to work for the sake of socially deprived people.” Football mania It is this passion that inspired him to set up the Saudi Indian Football Federation (SIFF). “Not many people know about the extent of football mania in my home state of Kerala,” he remarked. “If you go to Kerala during the (football) World Cup, you'll find that in certain areas, people have put up tents and decorated them with the colors of their favorite countries, like Brazil or Argentina or England. Now you can witness that same kind of mania for cricket but this was not the case before, especially in rural areas. “We have a large Kerala community living in Sharafiyah and they are mostly low-income workers like tea boys, drivers and shopkeepers. And these people all live in cramped conditions. One common factor between all of them, however, is that they all love football.” He added that individual clubs had been organizing football tournaments for some time in Jeddah, but had to face many problems mainly due to rivalry and non-cooperation among clubs. “Under SIFF, we got all the clubs affiliated to the organization and started having tournaments on a much larger scale lasting up to six months,” he explained. Each team has 20 members who hold regular practice sessions and participate in a number of tournaments conducted mostly in make shift grounds but knockout stage at the Ittihad Stadium. According to Dr. Moopan, the matches attract three to five thousand spectators. “This initiative is important because if you visit a place like Sharafiyah over the weekend, you will find people on the street and they are all looking for some kind of recreation. If some form of recreation is provided, they will naturally be more vibrant and productive. The tendency to deviate from normal activities get automatically discouraged.” He added that the value of the football tournaments organized by SIFF is such that it not only provides these people with entertainment, but also keeps them busy in preparing a well-trained team and raising funds. Serving the community Dr. Moopan is quick to mention that NGO activities are now on the rise but that his passion has always been for sports, education and social welfare, not cultural activities. He has been intensely involved in raising funds for natural disasters back home – most notably the 2004 Asian tsunami and 2001 Gujarat earthquake. After SIFF, Dr. Moopan has been significantly involved in the promotion of education within the Indian community. “The state of Kerala has the highest literacy rate in India. In addition to the efforts of the government, lots of private and especially religious, organizations have been involved in promoting education. The Christian community has been at the forefront along with various sections of the Hindu community. Though entering the field relatively late, the Muslim Educational Society (MES) has also done a lot for the promotion of education,” he remarked. The organization has already established a medical college, engineering college, arts and science colleges, secondary schools, hospitals and orphanages in Kerala. Dr. Moopan sought to replicate the society's resounding success in Jeddah so he founded the Jeddah chapter and became its president. One of Dr. Moopan's important educational initiatives here is the General Talent Competition, held annually for students of Indian origin. “The idea is to give students something additional to what they are learning at school. The competition, meant to empower the students, consists of written quiz, essay writing, geography tests as well as an elocution round and ultimately, stage interview. Mind over body Dr. Moopan began his medical career in 1967, opting for a tenure in the Indian Army for four years as a Captain and then going on to specialize in Psychiatry. He then spent a few years working in district hospitals in Manjeri and Cannanore (Kannur), where he plans to live after returning home. I commented that Dr. Moopan's choice of medical specialization is unique, particularly with respect to the Subcontinent, where doctors normally opt for other, perhaps more common, fields of specialization. Psychiatry is a very interesting branch of medicine,” he explained. “It is a vast field. Yes every branch of medicine is challenging, but psychiatry is more challenging mainly because there is no anatomical background to work on. For example, each case is different; even the symptoms' pattern is different because of the difference in the cultural, social, intellectual background of the patients. Drugs have a role but the main mode of management is counseling.” He added that socio-medical problems like drug addiction, adolescent angst, and family conflicts are all very interesting areas for study. “You learn a lot about the society as a whole...about what's going on.” Dr. Moopan also believes that the field is largely misunderstood in our society. “Usually people think that psychiatry deals with madness. That is a misconception. There are many anxiety and depressive disorders which are on the increase, probably brought about by the new lifestyles associated with stress,” he explained. There is also a false belief that social ills like sexual deviation and drug abuse don't exist in this part of the world. “People used to think that drug addiction was a problem of the West, but it has no boundaries. It is everywhere, like depression, and it is on the rise in almost every country.” Back to the books It is perhaps a testament both to Dr. Moopan's professionalism and the legacy of social work he leaves behind in the Kingdom, that his future plans include a marriage of both passions. It is also the reason why this fiercely altruistic individual has agreed to being interviewed in the first place. After returning to India, Dr. Moopan hopes to conduct field studies and casework on two medical conditions: Alzheimer's and Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD), both of which are on the rise across the world. “What I plan to do is gather information through doctors about individuals suffering from these afflictions and explore – in detail – their personal life prior to diagnosis. “After studying about 100 cases or more, I hope to find a common link in those suffering from the illness, as compared to the controls.” For this, he wants to provide his email address and urges doctors across the world to contact him regarding Alzheimer's and ADHD patients. He also encourages family members to contact him, stressing that nobody will ever be forced to provide more information than they are comfortable with giving. Dr. Moopan is leaving Saudi Arabia for good this year and will be moving back to his home state. “It is going to be rather tough,” he said. “I have changed a lot, but I hope I will be able to adjust myself.” He stresses the extensive support the Saudi Government provided him and his wife with during their stay here, and particularly as employees of the Ministry of Health. “The Government went out of their way to help us,” he remarked. His advice to all expatriates, new and old? “Do justice to your job and while doing so, learn more. If you are certain that you want to return to your country, then, do so while you are still active and vibrant. Don't wait until you reach a state of inactivity and become a burden; coping with new realities could be difficult.” Editor's note: To contact Dr. Abdulla Moopan with information about an Alzheimer's or ADHD patient, please email him at [email protected]
