 Vera Mindy Chokalingam was born in Cambridge, Massachusetts, to father Avu Chokalingam, an architect, and mother Swati Chokalingam (née Roysircar), an obstetrician/gynecologist (OB/GYN).Kaling's parents are from India and met while working at the same hospital in Nigeria.Her father, a Tamil raised in Chennai (Madras), was overseeing the building of a wing of the hospital, and her mother, a Bengali raised in Mumbai, was working as an OB/GYN.