¡Esto es Calcuta!

This is Calcutta! December of 2002 I travelled to India with Andrés, an excellent artist who was in the 70’s and 80’s sending monthly from West Bengal his chronicles in the shape of vignettes to the magazine El Víbora and they were regularly published. We went in search of his Indian wife Nilufar who years ago leaved Barcelona and never returned back. She was born near Calcutta and she belongs to the Moslem community of West Bengal. We found her and her story has become a book. I travelled again to Calcutta, I rented a small apartment with a terrace in the top of an old building in the neighbourhood of Rabindra Sarobar and I passed the monsoons there during the months of July and August of 2003. I spent my time talking with Nilufar and her neighbours. I visited her relatives and enjoyed buying in the New Market. I went to movies, visited our artist friends in Shantiniketan and had long conversations with Ruby-di, the developer and protector of a centennial foundation. February of 2004, I returned to Calcutta: It was spring in West Bengal. In a week we passed from cold weather to a warm and pleasant one. “Calcutta is hooking me”, I realized suddenly. The Marwaris, the Parsees, the big tea owners with their gardens in Darjeeling and their auctions in Calcutta, the mixture of strange people living around Sudder Street, the tourism of charity, the world of bidi manufacturers, the paddies, the forests of bamboos, the series of black novel by the filmmaker Styajit Ray and its detective Feluda. All this and a lot more are appearing in the book. The story of Nilufar is mixing little by little with the story of Calcutta and with my life in the city, and it reveals step by step hidden mysteries, taboos,  greatness and miseries of an extraordinary world. My mother (86) to whom this book is dedicated, visited me february 2004 and was living with me in Calcutta for some time. Her opinions and comments as an old school teacher who loved Rabindranath Tagore's writings appear in the third part of this book.

Photos by Toni Alsina. Drawings by Ernesto Carratalá

The Cave of Ali Baba. Iran day by day.

 Modern day Iran led by reformist president Jatamí, seen from a carpet shop at the  bazaar of Isfahan. This shop is the cave of wonders that hides all the treasures and where unusual things take place. From this special place the author has taken day by day the pulse of Iran, a country in turmoil: The youth, families, Islamic feminists, bakhtiari nomads, as well as the Iranian community in California, Persian rappers, Iranian economic foundations, the ins and outs of the bazaar, and much more.

The cave of Ali Baba has been published in paperback in Holland with the title:  MIJN LEVEN IN IRAN (De Bazaar van Isfahan)  is a best seller.

Price 17,00 €

Black On Black. Iran revisited        Short-listed for the Thomas Cook Travel Book Award 2001        

Nowadays we are witnessing very significant historical changes. Often the information we receive is biased, especially concerning less known cultures and countries, particularly Islam and more specifically Iran.

Ana Briongos has written these travel journals twenty years after her first journey to Iran. The result is a charming travel book, a journey of affectionate feelings.

In those days Iran was a westernized country ruled by the Shah who was eventually ousted by the Islamic Revolution.

Twenty years later the author travels again throughout the country and tells us about life today in the Islamic Republic of Iran. She tells stories about this contradictory and fascinating country.

She tells us about the Americans living there at the time, about  Mosadeq, the Caspian Sea and caviar, about opium, Nowruz , gastronomy, and the education in the madreses and universities. She narrates the story of a general from the Shah's army, about life in Ghom  and of course, about Khomeini. Throughout the book you will learn about different minorities: Armenians, Jews, Kurds and  you will also follow the touching story of Rave and her grandaughter Bubu.

--Credit titles       Black on Black (Spanish version)

Author: Ana M. Briongos                                                            Buy it on-line:  

1rst Spanish issue December 1996 

2nd issue July 1997

3rd issue March 2000/4th Feb 2002

Copyright: Ana M. Briongos 

Copyright of the Spanish issues: Laertes S.A. de Ediciones Montseny 43, baixos   08012 Barcelona

Copyright of the English issue until 2004: Lonely Planet. Now the rights for English are free.

Rights available for other languages

ISBN 0-86442-795-6

Lonely Planet Journeys

Size 19,7x12,8 cm.

Pages 179

February 2000

Map 1

English-language translation by Chris Andrews

A Winter in Kandahar. Afghan Travel Journal. This second book is the story of the journeys that the author made to Afghanistan between 1969 and 1977 and her relationship with the people she met there.

The book is divided in two parts:

A Winter in Kandahar

The author explains the reason for the journey; a journey that begun as an initiation but never met it's objective.

It develops in three locations: the Bazaar which shows the life of  merchants and traders; the judge's home, which takes a look at the  females' place in the family, and the Pamir Hotel where foreigners used to stay on their way East.

Each location offers a different vision of the country seen from the point of view of a young woman who travels alone and settles down in the south of  Afghanistan to spend the winter.

In 1998 this book won the special prize of the Jury  of "Great Travellers Prize of Aramaio" (Alava, Spain).

Lullaby for a dead adventurer

Ana Briongos explains her life in the capital of Afganistan, Kabul,  the charismatic people she met,  the families she lived with,  the job she had managing the Air France office and  her numerous travels within the country.

From this story you will discover more about the  tribal structure of Afghanistan.

Furthermore, you will learn about Afghan history, clans and families, etnicity, languages, the fight for power among different tribes, sibling rivalry, the thief king, a declining court , the beginning of the communist parties and the Islamic groups at the University of Kabul,  the "coup d'état" of the aristocrat Daud and also the civil war and the Talibans.

All mixed with true stories of love, friendship and suspense.

Some articles in Spanish:

Tres postales sobre la India. Publicado abril 2006 en Indicalibros.

¡Eh Calcuta!. La Vanguardia, 5 de marzo de 2006

Las Joyas de la corona persa. Revista Jano, nº 171.

Alfombras persas: arte milenario y garantía bancaria. Revista Jano, nº 225.

Unas vacaciones distintas aprendiendo idiomas. La Vanguardia, 17 de mayo de 1990.

Aprovechar las vacaciones para aprender idiomas. El País, 15 de mayo de 1991.

Tras las huellas de Zoroastro. Revista Altaïr, nº 2, verano 1999.

Los días del "rey de reyes". El periódico, 28 de febrero de 1999.

Descalzos por las colinas del Señor Venkatswara. Revista Altaïr, número 10,  2001.

Amanecer en Calcuta. La Vanguardia, 3 de agosto de 2003.

En un pueblo santhal. La Vanguardia, 30 de agosto de 2003.

Bazaar of Irán, its polítical and económic power. La Vanguardia. 2004.

July 2001.  UPF, Barcelona, Spain. "Women, Buddas, Ayatollahs and Talibans"

July 2001. Summer University of Guardamar del Segura, Alicante, Spain.

July 2002.  Pompeu Fabra University, "Afghanistan: From Genjis Khan to George Bush".

October 2003. Fundació La Caixa, "Iran, tradition and modernity".

September 2004. Pompeu Fabra University, "Images of India: Society, cinema, literature & dance"

September 2005. Pompeu Fabra University, "India from ancient times to modernity"

September 2006. Pompeu Fabra University. "India from ancient times to modernity"

September 2007. Pompeu Fabra University. "Understanding Iran"

info@ana-briongos.net