Sapporo (Japan): He is known as "Mr India" in this northern Japanese city, owns five Indian restaurants and earlier this week catered to the gastronomic needs of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and his delegation when they came for the G8 summit.

Meet Daniel (Dilip) Mansukhani, now 59, who left India in 1968 after finishing high school in Mumbai.

Life has, since then, been an entrepreneurial adventure that has seen him open "curry" outlets not only in a part of Japan that did not even know Indians, but also in such remote places as the Sakhalin islands in Russia and Guam and Saipan (both U.S. territories).

From working as a salesman with a tailor in Hong Kong to being appointed India's honorary consul in Sapporo has been a journey of adventure, determination, high energy and patriotism for a man driven by two mantras - "Do everything with your own hands, or not at all" and "Think global, but act local".

Even though a cook and his helper were part of the delegation of Manmohan Singh and his wife Gurcharan Kaur to Sapporo, it was Mansukhani and his team that provided the food to the prime minister in the specially equipped kitchen, complete with a roti tandoor.

"I worked from 5 a.m. and stayed up till 2 in the night to ensure everything was ship-shape," Mansukhani told IANS, adding that the prime minister appreciated the food and the arrangements, even though his own requirement was very frugal and basic.