GEORGE TOWN, Aug 23 — Remember The Little Mamak who had no idea about his roots or what "mamak” had meant?

Well, he is now back in an all-new adventure when he visited his childhood home in "Bagan”, or what locals used to call Butterworth.

Caricature artist Mohd Azmi Mohd Hussin continues his story of The Little Mamak, essentially the artist himself, with his latest book titled Lost in Bagan.

"I already had the ideas on this book the moment I finished drawing The Little Mamak so I took the whole of Ramadhan month to research, write and draw Lost In Bagan, " he said.

Mohd Azmi, who goes by the name ME in his books, was awarded a grant by Think City to produce the book on his younger days in Butterworth.

"I wanted to finish it in time for the Butterworth Fringe Festival this month so that it could be put up for sale during the festival,” he said.

A total 1,500 copies of the book were published by August, just in time for a soft launch during the festival on August 13 and 14.

Lost in Bagan is a retelling of Mohd Azmi’s childhood memories when he used to live in Kampung Benggali in Butterworth.

"It was based on my memories during the late 1980s when I was still a child and I remembered playing by the beach at Pantai Bersih,” he said.

The book tells of Mohd Azmi’s walk down memory lane as he visited each childhood site and the idyllic childhood days he had, from eating the Rasa Sayang ice cream — which no longer exists — to watching the latest Rajnikanth movie at the Cathay theatre there.

His old village has since been replaced by modern housing, but many of his favourite spots are still around, though much has changed since then.

He lamented the loss of the beachfront to the Butterworth Outer Ring Road (BORR) as this was where he and his siblings used to spend many happy days playing in the sand and swimming in the sea.

"It is sad that the beach there is gone, that kids nowadays won’t get to walk across to get to the beach anymore,” he said.

Lost in Bagan is Mohd Azmi’s third book. He previously authored Tanjong Life featuring Joe G and his travels around Penang island and The Little Mamak about growing up as a "mamak”, a term locals used for Indian Muslims.

He is not stopping at three as Mohd Azmi has more ideas for more books soon.

"I have to dream projects I want to work on, one about my life as a BMX racer previously and another, on caricature and how I ended up as a caricature artist,” he said.

These two topics are close to his heart and he hopes to start on these soon.

Lost in Bagan is available at Gerak Budaya and may also be ordered directly from Clarity Publishing or from Mohd Azmi’s Facebook page, Tanjonglife.

"I am having a Merdeka promotion where buyers can get all three books at the price of RM100 and this promotion is valid until my birthday next month,” he said.

Mohd Azmi was listed in the Malaysian Book of Records in March this year for the most number of live caricature drawing in 24 hours. He drew 320 caricatures in 24 hours and he used the feat to raise funds for Persatuan Tongkat Putih Pulau Pinang, Cancer Society of Malaysia and Kidney Foundation of Malaysia.