almostblack.comMindy Kaling's brother was desperate to become a doctor.
So desperate, it seems, that Vijay Chokal-Ingam was willing to completely lie about his identity in order to be accepted into medical school. To promote his upcoming book Almost Black: The True Story of an Indian American Who Got Into Medical School Posing as an African American, Chokal-Ingam revealed that he physically changed his appearance to appear as a black man instead of Indian so he would have a better chance of getting into school.
"I was determined to become a doctor and I knew that admission standards for certain minorities under affirmative action were, let's say… less stringent?" he writes on his website. "So, I shaved my head, trimmed my long Indian eyelashes, and applied to medical school as a black man. My change in appearance was so startling that my own fraternity brothers didn't recognize me at first."
He continues, "I even joined the Organization of Black Students and started using my embarrassing middle name that I had hidden from all of my friends since I was 9 years old."
A rep for The Mindy Project actress tells E! News, "Mindy has been estranged from her brother for years. She was not aware of his decision to apply to medical school under a different name and race."
Ingam's new appearance and identity seemed to be successful, as Kaling's brother claims he interviewed at some of the best medical schools in the U.S., including Harvard, University of Pennsylvania, Columbia and more, even with a 3.1 GPA.
"My plan actually worked," he writes. "Lucky for you, I never became a doctor."
He would go on to attend St. Louis University's medical school, but dropped out after two years after realizing he didn't want to become a doctor, after all. In an interview with Page Six, Ingram revealed that his A-list sister isn't happy about his forthcoming book.
"I love my sister to death," he said. "She says this will bring shame on the family."
He did, however, eventually graduate from UCLA Anderson's MBA program—as an Indian-American.