Akbar Mirza Khaleeli was an outstanding sportsman and student through school Bishop Cotton Boys' School and later Doveton Corrie Protestant Schools Association, studied law at Loyola College, Chennai. He was considered the best tennis player in South India bar Ramesh Krishnan but instead joined the Indian Foreign Service in 1954. He went on to serve in various posts in Delhi, Bagdad, Sri Lanka, Paris and Jordan. He was finally promoted to serve as Indian Ambassador to Iran 1980-1985, to Italy, and as High Commissioner to Australia. He became an expert on Middle Eastern affairs. Shakereh was with him through most of his postings, save that to Iran during the Iranian revolution.