Deep dive: Dr Zeba Moopen on swimming with the sharks, mental health, and more

When she was 17 years old, on a lark, Dr Zeba Moopen decided to train for a scuba diving certification in the UAE. Little did she know then that this would change the course of her life forever and she would take a free dive into life, literally!

But the change did not happen immediately. It was only eight years later, at the age of 25, while on a family holiday to the Maldives that Moopen discovered her calling.

She recollects, “I was at a weird place, figuring out who I was. I had spent the better part of my life trying to fit into a mould I had created for myself. And at that time, I was struggling a lot with my mental health. I thought, I had the certification, why not use it?”

Moopen embraced the water and it felt good. She felt one with herself and in the moment.

Something clicked, and Moopen has never looked back ever since. The ocean kept calling her and she continued to heed the call.

Later on, two years ago, she also explored the sport of freediving and dived headlong into it.

Moopen recently broke the national record at the Apnea Pirates AIDA Cup 2023 freediving championship in Dubai, completing the 30-metre category (up and down) with an impressive timing of one minute ten seconds.

Her journey from being a doctor to exploring the miracles of the ocean is an inspiring tale of courage and determination.

From medicine to other pursuits

Dr Zeba Moopen, the youngest daughter of Azad Moopen, Founder and Chairman of UAE-headquartered Aster DM Healthcare, is a medical doctor by training, with diverse interests in her family business.

Born and raised in the UAE, where her family had moved almost four decades ago, Moopen—by her own admission—had had a very “Gulf-Indian” upbringing, living the life of an expat abroad and spending her summers in Kerala, her home state.

After finishing school, she went to the United States for pre-medical studies at the University of Pennsylvania. Later, she came to India to complete her bachelor of medicine and bachelor of surgery (MBBS) from Manipal Academy of Higher Education.

“Growing up, my father was a huge inspiration. Seeing the kind of impact he had, helping people and communities, I wanted to follow in his footsteps and become a doctor, though there was no compulsion from the family,” says Moopen.

Towards the end of medical school, she began to realise that, although medicine was a fulfilling profession, it just wasn’t right for her. However, she went into practice for a year and later joined her father’s business on the management side.

During this stint, Moopen recognised that she could continue to help people, although in a different capacity, and was tasked with the launch of the Aster group’s CSR initiative called Aster Volunteers Programme.

This initiative includes basic life support awareness and training, free surgeries, medical camps, clinical investigation, and recruitment of differently abled people. All these efforts have impacted over 4.48 million people across geographies.

“After this, I was given different options in operational roles. But I thought I was not the right fit for them,” she says.

Last year, she decided to step away from a few of her corporate responsibilities and work on her passion.

Swimming with sharks

The ‘feel good’ factor of scuba diving helped her keep at it, as Moopen kept visiting the Maldives—at least twice a year. Even on trips to other places, she looked for spots to dive. The miracles of the ocean fascinated her no end.

“I was curious about what I was seeing, the coral reefs teeming with life,” she says.

As a natural evolution, Moopen was eager to move to the next level and soon obtained a certification in rescue diving—where she could rescue people in the ocean. “I was watching everyone around me, making sure everyone was safe,” she says.

Moopen also enrolled to be a dive master. This was an immersive and intensive experience where she learned to lead groups and introduce people to the ocean and make them comfortable in the water.

She has also achieved the feat of diving with Ocean Ramsey, who has gained international recognition for freediving with sharks. She joined Ramsey on a trip to Fuvahmulah, a remote place in the Maldives, far removed from the usual resort experience, well known for its tiger shark population.

“I was apprehensive and scared about getting into water with tiger sharks. But I knew this had to be a part of my journey, so I signed up,” recalls Moopen, who spent a week with Ramsey and her team.

“I jumped into the water, and it was all peace and calm. They (tiger sharks) are the most incredible creatures you can see, and I fell in love with them,” Moopen describes.

This experience motivated her to research more on sharks and their role as foragers in keeping marine ecosystems healthy.

“Today, they are nearly extinct because of us. I went down a rabbit hole, super intrigued, obsessed, and motivated to give them a voice,” she adds.

Moopen understood that people protected what they loved the most. So, if she could make people fall in love with the ocean, she felt it would be a good beginning in raising awareness about conservation of marine life.

Her biggest inspiration in her diving journey is her friend Anup J Kat, an award-winning cinematographer and diver. His enthusiasm rubbed off on her and Moopen started talking to more people about the ocean and how they could start off on their scuba diving journey. She joined Kat's company, One Ocean One Love to take people on diving trips in the Maldives.

“After I completed my dive master training course, along with Anup, I started taking people who were intrigued by the ocean but were fearful of the water. With our company, One Ocean One Love, we organise trips to the Maldives and watch their journey of falling in love with the ocean,” she says.

Challenging the depths

Two years ago, Moopen took to freediving by chance.

On the trip to Fuvahmulah, she realised she was actually freediving, instead of scuba diving and was able to get closer to sharks and other marine life.

In scuba diving, you go under water with a tank and do not hold your breath under water. But in freediving, you can hold your breath under water and move more freely, and there aren’t any bubbles that keep away marine life.

Moopen had been gifted a pair of freediving fins as a wedding present, but there were lying around unused. She decided to use them, and did a certification course in freediving. She continued to explore the activity, and, in her thirties, she finally discovered a sport she loved and was committed to.

Freediving, Moopen points out, has the reputation of being a hippie sport and hasn’t quite become mainstream. She wants to raise awareness about the sport and help it reach the mainstream.

Moopen had been training in freediving for 1.5 years when the Apnea Pirates AIDA Cup 2023 was announced.

“I thought it would be a good way to take it (her skills) to the next level,” she says.

Her plan now is to focus on training to reach greater depths and better timing and compete in more championships.

Recently, Moopen completed AIDA4 certification—an assistant instructor course—which will enable her to introduce more people to freediving.

Looking inward

In 2017, while struggling with her mental health, Moopen was also diagnosed with an autoimmune condition.

“My body tried warning me and I didn’t pay heed to it. I developed severe psoriasis and psoriatic arthritis, which woke me up and forced me to look inward,” she says.

While she was tempted to go down the conventional route for relief, she finally decided to try Ayurvedic treatment at Kotakkal Arya Vaidya Shala in Kerala.

“The chief vaidhyar (Ayurvedic physician), a doyen of Ayurveda, Dr PK Warrier said, ‘Whatever treatment we give while you are here will do 20% of the job and 80% of it will be what you put in your mouth, and what you put in your mind will determine the outcome.' That statement was very empowering, and, since that day, I have been very committed. I started working on being kinder to myself, emotionally, physically, and spiritually,” she says.

This experience led to the genesis of Wellth—a hub of integrative medicine in the UAE, launched by Aster DM Healthcare, to encourage people to lead healthier lives, alleviate chronic lifestyle diseases, and prevent hereditary afflictions.

The centre offers fifteen therapies including functional medicine, nutrition therapy, mental and emotional health support, Ayurveda, yoga, Reiki, cryotherapy, Chinese Medicine, and homeopathy.

Moopen quotes Rumi’s words, “The wound is where the light enters you,” to explain her spiritual awakening.

“In 2017, when my mental health was its worst, and I had been diagnosed with psoriasis, and had hit rock bottom, it opened me to things I had closed myself off to,” she says.

During this period, she also discovered the teachings of Vedanta, which helped her cope with the situation she was grappling with.

“When I did a deep dive, the teachings really helped me–it allowed me to question, and it gave me answers. It gave me a lot of understanding about myself, about the world, how to be in it, why we are here and what we are trying to do.”

(The copy has been updated to include additional information.)