John and Kinnari met in 1976 while they were students at the National Institute of Design (NID) in Ahmedabad.

 

At that time, Kinnari was studying the  traditional textiles of Kutch in northern Gujarat, with a concentration on the various weaving techniques and dye formulas, some of which are only passed down as a family heirlooms. John did the photo documentation.

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After NID Kinnari was sponsored by Jack Lenor Larsen to attend the Cranbrook Art Academy in Bloomfield Hills, Michigan, where she got her masters degree in fibre and sculpture in 1984.

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In 1987 John and Kinnari moved to New York City, where Kinnari started her company Kinnu while John pursued his career in photography.

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Ten years later they opened their own retail outlet for Kinnu in the Nolita neighbourhood of Manhattan. Everything in the store was made entirely by the craftsmen from Kutch and Ahmedabad, the same ones they had befriended earlier in their journey.

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Kinnari closed her business in New York after John's passing and permanently moved back to India to exclusively pursue her and John's passion for the conservation  of their four hundred year old neighbourhood of Jethabhai ni pol in the Old City of Ahmedabad.