Hussain and V. S. Gaitonde who were together in the 1950s in Bhulabhai Desai Institute, Mumbai, and often exhibited alongside them.

Later Henri Cartier-Bresson introduced him to photography, after former visited his exhibition at the Galerie Barbizon, Paris.

[7][9] He left NID in 1981, and went on to establish the Rural Design School in Sewapuri, near Varanasi.

[5] He has collaborated creatives like Charles Eames, Louis I. Kahn, Frei Otto, Harindranath Chattopadhyay, dancer Chandralekha.

During the last decade of his life, he worked largely from Alibag, near Mumbai, where the Dashrath Patel Museum now houses his multidisciplinary oeuvre.