Kaustubh
Member • Nov 25, 2010
The Story Of CrazyEngineers - How CE Came To Life
Today is November 26th. CEans from all over the world are celebrating CrazyEngineers Day. Five years have gone by in a jiffy. I can't stop recalling how things unfolded 5 years ago in the history. Many CEans have asked me to narrate the Story Of CrazyEngineers - how CE came to life. I've told the story on few occasions, but not the full version of it. Let's say I reserved it for our 5th anniversary. So here comes the full story told for the first time -
I graduated with a first class degree in Electrical Engineering in 2003. But it was the year many companies had put hold on the recruitment activities and our campus saw no companies visiting for recruitment. It was one long year comprising of ups & downs, GRE & CAT preparations, submitting 'hard copies' of resume to various companies and so on. My friends and I were clueless about our future. We were aimless and restless. The times were bad and were made worse by the news of our poor performing batch mates getting jobs one by one. Looking back, I can't stop laughing at our own impatience & jealousy. However those were the times that made us a bit cleverer about almost everything!
After one long year, most of us got jobs in IT companies. No matter what our discipline was, we had to pick up IT companies as they were the only ones making offers. I was fortunate enough to get a job very close to my residence. It was year 2004. I had became a software engineer and life was all set. I was earning & learning well. My parents even started talking about my marriage to which I always responded with an angry face. But the destiny had something else in store for me.
I do not come from a business family. My Mother is a housewife and father is an engineer. Ever since I was a kid, we've always had post-dinner discussions about all the topics under the Sun. My mother always supported and encouraged me to do extra-curricular activities. I grew up watching my father fix everything broken and make it work. So I was very clear that I'd become an engineer. My parents allowed me to take up any discipline I want be it engineering, medical, arts, law, science or whatever. I developed special interest towards electricity and I knew I'd do something in Electrical or Electronics engineering. But there I was, sitting in a cubicle, working on software for a leading IT company! Something had to change.
So I made a plan for myself. Having prepared for GRE & CAT in the past, I knew I'd get admission in any of the Indian Institutes Of Management (IIM). You see, I always aimed insanely, very high! Once admitted into IIM, I'd find like minded people and form a group to start something of our own and also learn a thing or two about running a company. So I went back to CAT preparations again. I used to prepare part-time while managing office hours. However, I began to realize that CAT wasn't my cup of tea and I was choosing the wrong path. I read tens of books on Entrepreneurship in the mean time, and found out that I need not do MBA to become an entrepreneur. I was in dilemma again.
My company offered newsgroups for internal communication among employees - it was a central place where we could post questions, ideas, jokes and everything and it'd get shared instantly with all the employees in all the offices of the company. Other employees would respond to questions and also contribute ideas, jokes, puzzles in their free time. I loved those newsgroups and became a regular contributor. It also earned me a bit of fame inside the company among the employees hooked the newsgroups 😀 . One thing I knew was, I really enjoyed posting on newsgroups and getting responses. I was preparing for CAT and I'd get all the help from Pagalguy.com - India's largest community of MBA aspirants. Inspired by Pagalguy, I started "the-big-k.com" (domain no longer available) for GRE discussions. It was October 2005 when I started it. The CAT was just few days away and I was losing interest in studies. Also I was getting nowhere with the-big-k.com. I was preparing my mind to abandon CAT. I had similarly abandoned GRE 2 years ago because I thought I'd stay India and do something here than following the beaten path of GRE-MS-Settling in USA.
I always enjoyed watching two amazing shows on Discovery Channel: Mega Structures and Extreme Engineering. I've always dreamed of being a part of a mega project and still do. I remember it was November 24, 2005. I was in my office and searching for a place where the engineers who work on larger-than-life projects come together to exchange ideas, solve problems and help each other. I searched for about 10 minutes. "Come On! This can't be true!", I said. There was no place for engineers to come together online. After-all, Engineers are the ones who filled this world with awesome stuff. They've no place to come together? Shocking discovery it was! Well, later I did discover that there are few websites that have similar concept; but they were not popular. Opportunity was knocking the doors and I had to do something about it.
With some experience of 'the-big-k.com", I knew how to register a domain. I began my search for a relevant domain where I could gather all the engineers. The most obvious domain names were taken but the sites were not live, not reachable. After searching for various domain names, "CrazyEngineers" popped up in my mind. I fell in love with the name and above all, it was 'Available'! Wow! I needed a credit card to book it! But I only had a debit card that didn't work for online transactions.
I took my bike and went home (just 2 minutes drive). I told my mother my new idea and the name I came up with. However, I wasn't very sure whether I'd book that name or even do something about it. My mother instantly approved the idea and the name. "CrazyEngineers is an excellent name. Everyone would love it. Go with it!", She said. Had she not approved the name and told me to go with it, CE wouldn't have been a reality. CE exists because of her.
The next step was to call my father and ask for his credit card number 😁 . I called my father and explained the idea. He agreed immediately and gave me the card details. I logged on to the domain registrar and booked the domain "CrazyEngineers.com" on November 24, 2005.
I decided that I'd anyhow launch the site on my Birthday, November 26. I had 48 hours to launch the website. I spent all of my non-office hours setting up CE Forums on /forum/ and had nothing to display on the main domain. I installed a simple redirection script on the main domain to redirect every visitor to the 'forum/'.
CE came to life on November 26. The rest is history created by all of you. CE's power is shared by all our CEans who make it stronger, useful and even bigger every day. The credit for making CE what it is, goes to all of the active CEans and Mods who spend major part of their everyday life on CE, helping others expecting nothing in return.
A big salute to all CEans!
I graduated with a first class degree in Electrical Engineering in 2003. But it was the year many companies had put hold on the recruitment activities and our campus saw no companies visiting for recruitment. It was one long year comprising of ups & downs, GRE & CAT preparations, submitting 'hard copies' of resume to various companies and so on. My friends and I were clueless about our future. We were aimless and restless. The times were bad and were made worse by the news of our poor performing batch mates getting jobs one by one. Looking back, I can't stop laughing at our own impatience & jealousy. However those were the times that made us a bit cleverer about almost everything!
After one long year, most of us got jobs in IT companies. No matter what our discipline was, we had to pick up IT companies as they were the only ones making offers. I was fortunate enough to get a job very close to my residence. It was year 2004. I had became a software engineer and life was all set. I was earning & learning well. My parents even started talking about my marriage to which I always responded with an angry face. But the destiny had something else in store for me.
I do not come from a business family. My Mother is a housewife and father is an engineer. Ever since I was a kid, we've always had post-dinner discussions about all the topics under the Sun. My mother always supported and encouraged me to do extra-curricular activities. I grew up watching my father fix everything broken and make it work. So I was very clear that I'd become an engineer. My parents allowed me to take up any discipline I want be it engineering, medical, arts, law, science or whatever. I developed special interest towards electricity and I knew I'd do something in Electrical or Electronics engineering. But there I was, sitting in a cubicle, working on software for a leading IT company! Something had to change.
So I made a plan for myself. Having prepared for GRE & CAT in the past, I knew I'd get admission in any of the Indian Institutes Of Management (IIM). You see, I always aimed insanely, very high! Once admitted into IIM, I'd find like minded people and form a group to start something of our own and also learn a thing or two about running a company. So I went back to CAT preparations again. I used to prepare part-time while managing office hours. However, I began to realize that CAT wasn't my cup of tea and I was choosing the wrong path. I read tens of books on Entrepreneurship in the mean time, and found out that I need not do MBA to become an entrepreneur. I was in dilemma again.
My company offered newsgroups for internal communication among employees - it was a central place where we could post questions, ideas, jokes and everything and it'd get shared instantly with all the employees in all the offices of the company. Other employees would respond to questions and also contribute ideas, jokes, puzzles in their free time. I loved those newsgroups and became a regular contributor. It also earned me a bit of fame inside the company among the employees hooked the newsgroups 😀 . One thing I knew was, I really enjoyed posting on newsgroups and getting responses. I was preparing for CAT and I'd get all the help from Pagalguy.com - India's largest community of MBA aspirants. Inspired by Pagalguy, I started "the-big-k.com" (domain no longer available) for GRE discussions. It was October 2005 when I started it. The CAT was just few days away and I was losing interest in studies. Also I was getting nowhere with the-big-k.com. I was preparing my mind to abandon CAT. I had similarly abandoned GRE 2 years ago because I thought I'd stay India and do something here than following the beaten path of GRE-MS-Settling in USA.
I always enjoyed watching two amazing shows on Discovery Channel: Mega Structures and Extreme Engineering. I've always dreamed of being a part of a mega project and still do. I remember it was November 24, 2005. I was in my office and searching for a place where the engineers who work on larger-than-life projects come together to exchange ideas, solve problems and help each other. I searched for about 10 minutes. "Come On! This can't be true!", I said. There was no place for engineers to come together online. After-all, Engineers are the ones who filled this world with awesome stuff. They've no place to come together? Shocking discovery it was! Well, later I did discover that there are few websites that have similar concept; but they were not popular. Opportunity was knocking the doors and I had to do something about it.
With some experience of 'the-big-k.com", I knew how to register a domain. I began my search for a relevant domain where I could gather all the engineers. The most obvious domain names were taken but the sites were not live, not reachable. After searching for various domain names, "CrazyEngineers" popped up in my mind. I fell in love with the name and above all, it was 'Available'! Wow! I needed a credit card to book it! But I only had a debit card that didn't work for online transactions.
I took my bike and went home (just 2 minutes drive). I told my mother my new idea and the name I came up with. However, I wasn't very sure whether I'd book that name or even do something about it. My mother instantly approved the idea and the name. "CrazyEngineers is an excellent name. Everyone would love it. Go with it!", She said. Had she not approved the name and told me to go with it, CE wouldn't have been a reality. CE exists because of her.
The next step was to call my father and ask for his credit card number 😁 . I called my father and explained the idea. He agreed immediately and gave me the card details. I logged on to the domain registrar and booked the domain "CrazyEngineers.com" on November 24, 2005.
I decided that I'd anyhow launch the site on my Birthday, November 26. I had 48 hours to launch the website. I spent all of my non-office hours setting up CE Forums on /forum/ and had nothing to display on the main domain. I installed a simple redirection script on the main domain to redirect every visitor to the 'forum/'.
CE came to life on November 26. The rest is history created by all of you. CE's power is shared by all our CEans who make it stronger, useful and even bigger every day. The credit for making CE what it is, goes to all of the active CEans and Mods who spend major part of their everyday life on CE, helping others expecting nothing in return.
A big salute to all CEans!
