Vijay Chokal-Ingam, who is sparking controversy with a proposed but not yet finished book "Almost Black The True Story Of An Indian American Who Got Into Medical School Pretending To Be An African American," which he says is intended at least in part to balance the moral ledger.

Im a Hindu, and we have something called karma says Mr. Chokal-Ingam, in an interview. I think Im doing the right thing now. Im telling the truth about a system of organized racism that I dont think helps anyone. Im trying to prevent people from being discriminated against or having negative stereotypes created that hurt their careers indirectly through the cycle of discrimination.

Chokal-Ingam, who subsequentlydropped out of medical school and is now a graduate school admissions consultant,declined to speak about his family or his famous sister, thecreator and star of the FOX comedy, 'The Mindy Project'and their reaction to his work.

He describes how his decision to falsify his applications came about. After watching some of my best friends who were Indian-American like me get rejected from medical school I said, you know, I dont want to take the same path.

An applicant with my test scores who was Indian or Asian-American was unlikely to get into med school, while an African-American with the same scores was statistically likely to get into medical school. So it was a pretty easy choice at that point, he says.

Chokal-Ingam says that it was at that point, I chose to shave my head, trim my Indian eyelashes and join the organization of Black Students and apply to medical school as an African-American.

Chokal-Ingam says he applied to a number of US medical schools, including Harvard, Cornell, and the University of Pennsylvania in 1998, adding, I never lied about anything on my application, except my race."

Asked if he truly wanted to become a physician or if this was a social experiment, he says, At the time there was nothing I wanted more in the world. My mother was a doctor. Id worked in a hospital. There was nothing I wanted more and I was willing to do anything within reason to achieve that goal.

But he never completed his medical training, a fact that he attributes to karma.

I have to be willing to accept the fact that perhaps I was never destined to become a doctor because of the way I got in, he says. I showed that I didnt have the clinical skills required to be a doctor. So unfortunately, I dropped out.

Originally posted here:

Why Mindy Kaling's brother posed as black to get into med school