All the Fishes Come Home to Roost: An American Misfit in India

Rachel Manija Brown

This is a personal memoir of great charm, wit, and incredible honesty. At the age of seven, "Mani" Brown was taken by her parents to live in the ashram of Meher Baba, an Indian Spiritual Master who had dropped his body in 1969. In 1980 the Brown family moved to Ahmednagar, an obscure backwater town in the west-central state of Maharashtra, India. Located 300 or 400 miles east of Bombay, Ahmednagar was hot, dry, and ugly. The author describes the location of this spiritual commune, or ashram, as "desolate." Her story is very revealing and she pulls no punches in describing her own experiences, the weird people at the Ashram, and the eccentricities of her parents.

According to the author, Meher Baba was born in 1894 in Pune to a Parsi family. Parsi's followed the ancient religion of Zoroastrianism. Merwan Irani (Meher Baba's birth name) was an ordinary, intelligent youth until at the age of nineteen he befriended a Muslim holy woman who lived under a tree. One day she kissed him on the forehead and he went into a semi-catatonic state. His parents took him to doctors and psychiatrists and after a year he became more functional, but not the same as he had been before. Merwan wandered around India for a period of time until he met another holy person, male and Hindu. This holy man pitched a rock at the boy's forehead and Merwan declared he had become enlightened.

Baba developed an eclectic following of Muslims, Hindus, and foreigners. He claimed to be God, and to be the reincarnation of Jesus, Mohammed, Zoroaster, Krishna, Buddha, and Rama, plus a few other minor incarnations.

The author's parents, hippies of Jewish descent, attended U.C. Berkeley, where they saw a picture of Baba and ultimately became part of his following. They then chose to move to his Ashram with their seven year old daughter.

I found this book to be fascinating, enjoyable, quite entertaining, funny, and even enlightening. Mani (who later changed her name to Rachel) was one tough, observant, and intelligent kid. She grew up to be an accomplished writer. Her descriptions of the people and events at the Ashram, and her travels in India are unique and riveting. Her intelligence, humor, and skeptical outlook make this an absolute must read.

I think just about everybody, no matter what tastes or background one comes from, will enjoy this book. Even the title is very clever.

Review by Len Oppenheim