Several years before Achala was born, her young father Moni Moulik, already a well-known journalist in India and Europe, and his young wife Leela, decided on the advice of Rabindranath Tagore to make their future home in Shantiniketan. It was to this home that they and their children came on holidays and where the couple finally settled after their diplomatic and international assignments abroad. It was in Shantiniketan that Achala came to know about the many splendored genius of Rabindranath Tagore.