Santiniketan: Two expatriate alumni of the Patha Bhavana school at Visva-Bharati has taken the initiative to revive a method that used to be renowned at the institution until the 1980s.

America-based designer Nivedita Basu and Calcutta technocrat Kaushik Mukherjee recently organised the workshop at the Siksha Satra, a school run by Visva-Bharati at Sriniketan.

The pedagogical method, Khela Khela, was instituted by former Kala Bhavana professor Sanat Kar. It employed unconventional methods of writing limericks and free-hand drawing to impart instruction to students. Usually, a class of students would be divided into a limerick group and a drawing group.

Each would be asked to compose a limerick or draw pictures on pieces of papers supplied to them. Then, the students would exchange the papers.

"Those who received a paper with a limerick would have to draw a picture conveying the meaning of the limerick. Those who received a drawing would have to produce a limerick conveying the meaning of the drawing," a Kala Bhavana teacher said.

A book - Khela Khela - consisting of examples from the class had also been published during Kar's time.

Thirty students - ranging from the kindergarten level to class IV - attended the workshop on August 25. Kala Bhavan professor Janak Jhankar Narzary, writer Shankarlal Bhattacharjee and varsity vice-chancellor Sabuj Koli Sen were present.

"We passed out from Patha Bhavana in 1984 and settled down with our professions. During Pous Mela last year, I had planned to publish Khela Khela in a renewed version. I contacted my friend Nivedita in the USA who was happy to join the project. Nivedita drew the drawings and I wrote the limericks based on our subjects. We published it at the Pous Mela grounds in December last year," Mukherjee said.

"Recently, we contacted officiating vice-chancellor Sabuj Koli Sen and said we wanted to start the Khela Khela method in a continuous process on both the campuses of Patha Bhavana and Siksha Satra (run by Visva-Bharati). She welcomed our initiative and we launched it from Siksha Satra," Mukherjee said.

Nivedita Basu, who is settled in USA, told The Telegraph: "I travel twice a year to India and have planned to organise at least a series of seven camps during each trip for Khela Khela. Today I found the students are so happy with this initiative. Our dream is to revive Khela Khela on the campuses of our two schools."

Sabuj Koli Sen said: "I welcomed it when the alumnus approached me to revive Khela Khela. It will help to increase the ability of drawing and writing among students."

Tabassum Laila, a Class III student of Siksha Satra, who participated in Khela Khela, said: "I enjoyed the game. First, I drew a picture of natural landscape and one of my friends wrote a limerick on it."