Kollam - cashews and civil unrest

It was soon after noon when we were ambushed. smoke, explosions and flashes erupted to our right, Lissy ducked beneath our taxi's window for cover. And we were passing a standard, peaceful political rally - astonishing how hyped up everyone was, given the laid-back attitude of Kerala, typified by the contagious head-wobbling. They take politics seriously here: in 1957 Kerala democratically elected a communist govt - the first place in the world to do so - and there are currently 4 'communist' parties seeking election in Kerala.

The head wobble is leading to increasingly awkward situations. Eg: Me to tuktuk driver: "I can't remember the direction to Ashtamudi (our fantastic hotel), do you know the way?"
Tuktuk driver to me: *wobble wobble*
- long silence -
Me: "is that a yes wobble, or a no wobble?" He wasn't that offended, and I wanted to walk anyway.

So we're now based in Kollam, a town renowned for being the centre of the local, world-famous cashew industry - apparently Columbus was trying to get here for the cashews when he discovered America. Smart.

It turns out I'm as nuts (pardon da pun) about cashews as Columbus was: I loaded up on facts (from our hotel bookshelf) before we hit the town - cashews were introduced to India in around 1590, and they damn delicious.
It's so hard to make cashew-related jokes (see above), but well done to these time-heavy freaks for trying:
http://hilariouscashewjokes.tumblr.com/
Their jokes may possibly be worse than some of mine (yes, I have been joking).

Perhaps my dejected mental state can explain my terrible bant: not only was the famous Vijayalaxmi cashew emporium closed, but the only other tree-grown delights we could find were more expensive gram-for-gram than the weed Roti-the-rickshaw-dealer (see below, and if you're a parent of course i'm joking - he was v expensive) was shifting.

On the plus side, I got an Indian phone: this newsagent man called Riyaz gave me his SIM card and a phone, as well as his number - interesting 'game' tactics if ever I saw them. Also, this ancient, white-haired, emaciated fella on a bike asked us to take photos of him - having checked whether he looked sharp, he gave us his name so he could use the snaps for a new profile photo.

I spent a fair amount of time in the hammock today, so my nose is now looking like some sort of Jewish strawberry.