Ganeshotsav 2026: How NCRIMS Students Turned a Small Ganpati into a Campus-Wide Festival
Reported by Radhika Sharma
Meerut, 20th September 2026: What began as a small, student-organised Ganpati celebration at National Capital Region Institute of Medical Sciences (NCRIMS), Meerut, has now taken shape as NCRIMS Morya 2026, a campus-wide Ganeshotsav that drew 100-150 attendees for daily aarti and over 300 for the visarjan rally. Organised in just 10 days by a core team of 10-15 PG and UG students, the event blended tradition with a distinctly university culture, drawing in faculty, administrative staff, and students from across departments. Buoyed by the strong turnout and participation, the organising team now plans to make the event an annual and consistent fixture on the college calendar.
“Ganeshotsav is assumed to be a festival limited to Maharashtra; we wanted to further integrate this into the diverse culture of a university environment,” said Dr Vijay Patil (UG), one of the key student organisers from Nanded, now studying at NCRIMS. “On the first day, people were still a little hesitant; they weren’t sure about the traditions, so that made them stop taking an active part in the celebrations,” he added. “They’re now pretty comfortable; everyone dresses up, comes for the aarti, socialise, etc.,” Patil noted.
Daily festivities saw an average of 100-150 people, with peak turnout between 7-8 pm during the evening aarti. The main Ganpati idol was immersed five days after Chaturthi. Permissions were secured from the college administration early, after which juniors from undergraduate courses and other departments joined in, helping with logistics, decorations, and outreach. Faculty, the college board, students, and administrative staff all attended, turning it into a cross-departmental celebration.
The event also saw strong support from senior clinicians and administrators. Attendees included Dr Shivani Agarwal (Assistant Managing Director and Head of Department, Radiology), Dr Himani Agarwal (Chief Executive Officer, NCRIMS), Dr Krishna Zanwar (Radiology), Dr Samartha Skirrate Hibare (Pathology), and Dr Mayur Ramesh Rupnar (PG, General Medicine). “NCRIMS has a lot of students from Maharashtra,” noted Dr Rupnar. He added that the programme was attended by the Assistant Managing Director and Head of Department, Radiology, Dr Shivani Agarwal, and Chief Executive Officer Dr Himani Agarwal, and named Radiology’s Dr Krishna Zanwar, Pathology’s Dr Samartha Skirrate Hibare, and himself from General Medicine as some of the people “involved in materialising this event.” On the process, he said, “To start the process of organisation, permissions were taken. Slowly, juniors from undergraduate courses and other departments joined in.”
The festival culminated in a vibrant Visarjan Rally from 5 pm to 7 pm on 18th September 2026, after which students took the Ganpati idol to Garhmukteshwar for immersion. More than 300 students, faculty, and staff joined the procession, marking the strongest single turnout of the 10-day event and underscoring how a once-niche celebration had evolved into a shared campus tradition.
