Tim Shields is a writer whose book A Curious Year in the Great Vivarium Experiment, chronicles an epic journey he took to India w a 1-way ticket and not so much as a guidebook.  

Facing a sense of mortality shortly after the passing of his mother, he committed to his writing by traveling to a place that would allow him to live inexpensively and concentrate on his writing. Tim Shields worked hard & returned w more money than he had when he left, & a message he had to share with the rest of us.