GEORGE TOWN: BREAD seller L. Munyadi was not aware how much he meant to the Balik Pulau community, until he suffered an accident in 2012.
During the one month he was unable to supply bread, almost all residents in the town, regardless of race, visited him, showering him with words of encouragement and wishes for a speedy recovery.
“I was surprised by the show of love,” he said at his house in Taman Sri Genting here yesterday.
Munyadi, 51, said the whole month saw the united, caring and harmonious side of residents of Balik Pulau.
“People had been friendly to me and often shared their joys and sorrows. However, I was surprised and touched by their care and concern for a mere roti seller like me,” he said.
In his 35 years of service in Balik Pulau, Munyadi said his customers had become his close friends.
Munyadi, better known as Mamak Roti, has been immortalised in a mural painting at Taman Seri Genting near here, in conjunction with the Balik Pulau Festival recently.
Munyadi said he only learnt he was the subject of the mural when his children showed him a picture that appeared online.
He said his initial reaction was, “where are my eyes?”
“I was told by friends that it was a three-dimensional painting and that my eyes are visible at certain angles. They showed me a picture of the mural, and true indeed, I could see my eyes,” he said with a chuckle.
Munyadi was also pleasantly surprised to learn that the artist who drew the mural used to be a boy who purchased bread from him. “He always drew while sitting on the ground. I used to advise him to draw elsewhere as he was blocking my motorcycle.”
Munyadi said the fame the mural painting had brought him had not gone to his head.
“I am touched by the mural, but I am still the same roti seller I have always been.
“But there are some friends who have been keeping their distance from me since the mural was painted, probably thinking that I would be putting on airs.”
Munyadi said the mural had brought more customers, with many waiting for him to come to Taman Seri Genting.
“I usually carry enough bread to sell for a day but now I need more. The bread is normally sold out within an hour.”
Munyadi and his wife M. Verawali, 56, have three children aged 29, 25 and 20.
“My eldest is a doctor, my second is a lawyer and my youngest is studying to be a chemical engineer. Seeing them succeed in life is my biggest happiness.”
Beside his roti business, Munyadi also has a dairy farm comprising 20 cows.