DESCRIPTION
During the last forty years, Dr. Shahane, an experienced professional, heard numerous stories that have helped him enjoy the moments of time whether it is lively conversation, presentation or a class room lecture. As a Distinguished Toastmaster (DTM), he also has had the great privilege of telling numerous stories in both formal and informal meetings. It is his experience that over the period of time, a person is habituated to enjoy a good story momentarily and to remove it immediately from both the short and long term memories. The short-lived nature of these stories is great loss. This is unfortunate because the useful information is lost and difficult to retrieve once it is lost. That loss of time along with great deal of frustration can be prevented if there is a methodical practice to compile these stories at the centralized place for people to access these useful stories. Unfortunately, there is no systematic method now to do that. It is also next to impossible to gather all the stories posted on the internet. It is sometimes not even possible to search these topics because they are in unmanageable numbers. To balance these extremities, a simple effort is made in this book to compile those stories that are of general interest to the majority of society and those stories that have been tested as valuable thoughts or lessons with entertaining qualities.

The decisions to select the stories and categorize them in the fashion that will increase the use of these stories by the interdisciplinary professionals are that of the author. The stories are selected from a large bank of information collected by the author over the period of the last 40 years. The entertainment, education, inspiration, humor, down-to-earth common sense, patriotism, and value system are some of the criterion used by the author in selecting these stories. Amazingly these stories can be useful to everybody in all walks of life on this planet earth. Professors, public speakers, politicians, parents, teachers, engineers, scientists, and administrators are just few examples of professionals who can invariably use the stories to emphasize their point of view or embellish a presentation or to provide invaluable direction.

The author sincere hopes that these 115 stories (although limited in number) become the starting point for a powerful story search for numerous occasions by people in different walks of life. With the unlimited creativity of these individuals, these stories can be used directly or indirectly with or without modifications to fit each occasion. Ultimate purpose of this effort in presenting these selected, powerful stories is to make people feel happier, joyful and to develop up-beat inspiration to lead a productive life in this world.

Ashok N. Shahane received a Doctorate Degree in Civil and Environmental Engineering from the University of Connecticut in 1973. Dr. Shahane worked for the private corporations, government agencies and public-private universities in Florida for the last 39 years. He has received several awards for his meritorious service and professional work. Dr. Ashok N. Shahane has been working for the state of Florida for the last 28 years. Dr. Shahane has contributed to many national publications and has authored two books. He is listed in Who’s Who in Government.