"My name is Mohammad Deepak."
With these five simple words, a Hindu man who stood up for a Muslim shopkeeper has been catapulted to fame and become an unlikely hero in India.
Deepak Kumar has been praised as an "icon for secular India" and a "posterboy for India's pluralism". At the same time, he has faced noisy protests, been called a traitor to his Hindu faith and received death threats.
The incident that thrust him into the spotlight took place on 26 January in the small town of Kotdwar in the northern state of Uttarakhand. It has made headlines since a video recording of the incident went viral.
It shows the 42-year-old gym owner arguing with activists of Bajrang Dal, a hardline Hindu group that routinely makes news for harassing Muslims.
