Rajesh Koothrappali

Rajesh Ramayan Koothrappali is Wolowitz's best friend and yet another genius. He is Indian, albeit he despises Indian food (as seen in The Luminous Fish Effect and in The Dumpling Paradox) and culture. He has a thick Indian accent and, like Wolowitz, a love for Stephen Hawking. He works in the Physics department at Caltech, where his area of expertise is particle astrophysics. For his discovery of a planetary object beyond the Kuiper Belt (which he named "Planet Bollywood") he was included in People magazine's "30 Under 30" to watch, and thus received a larger office for his work, granting him some form of celebrity status. However, the work Raj performs at the University is repetitive enough that he could conceivably get replaced by a simple software program.

Personality
He approaches women in the exact opposite way to Wolowitz: he is so shy that he is unable to speak to them unless he is intoxicated or does not feel he is directly addressing them, however, he is able to speak around female family members, if the women are part of a crowd or if he is unaware of their presence, and also has greater luck with women in contrast to his over-confident friend, Howard. His social anxiety around women seems to be indicative of selective mutism, and is inspired by a former coworker of Bill Prady's. During Season 1, Penny cornered him to talk to him about her frustration with Leonard and Sheldon, he voiced a lengthy inner monologue, reminiscing of his native customs and singing. More often than not, though, he just stays silent. Alcohol appears to suppress his social anxiety, since he has prolonged conversations with women after drinking. He first discovers this when Penny mixes a "Grasshopper" cocktail for him. This has caused him to expect that the consumption of alcohol will allow him to speak, thus making him susceptible to the placebo effect.

Raj can talk to women even if he thinks he's drunk (as shown when he drinks non-alcoholic beer while talking to Summer Glau). In the episode the Griffin Equivalency, Raj is able to talk to Penny as he has become arrogant and full of himself, so we can assume that his over confidence canceled out his mutism. However after being a total jerk to Penny while drunk, he ashamedly reverts back to his old persona. He tries to apologize through a note. Penny refuses saying she wants an actual apology with words. He manages to utter a very high-pitched "Sorry", which is accepted. An experimental anti-anxiety drug enabled him to talk fluently to women, but had side effects on his motor controls and mannerisms. Eventually, the drug wore off at the wrong moment: when Sheldon's sister Missy, who had rebuffed Leonard and Wolowitz, admitted that she was attracted to Koothrappali and had been hoping he would ask her out. Raj thinks about someday marrying an Indian woman so she can sing lullabies from his native land to his future children.

Raj does seem to get along well with his friends, but for comedic affect, Raj is commonly left on his own in Leonard's and Sheldon's apartment without any acknowledgment by his friends. Raj and Sheldon do get along well, but much of Sheldon's antics complicate the relationship between the two. Raj's parents constantly arrange new dates for him, which Raj despises greatly.

Family
Raj regularly communicates with his parents, Dr. V.M and Mrs. Koothrappali back in India via webcam. Not much of Raj's family is explored so far. A running gag in the series is that Raj claims that he grew up in poverty, only for his friends to remind him that Raj comes from a wealthy background, his Father is a gynaecologist, and drives a Bentley. Raj as a matter of fact comes from a very large family; He comes from a family of six children, according to The Hot Troll Deviation.

Raj's cousin, Sanjay Koothrappali (or, as he says his friends know him as "Dave from AT&T Customer Service"), works in a Call Centre, and is briefly mentioned in various episodes. In The Guitarist Amplification, Raj tried to circumvent going to his wedding, but eventually accepted his parent's offer.

Another cousin, Venkatesh (who appeared in The Precious Fragmentation ), works as a lawyer in Mumbai. Albeit, he has poor negotiation skills, who even admits that he is useless.

Raj is also mentioned to have an older brother in one episode, who, according to Raj, painted and gave him his 'Patang' (fighter kite), but this was eventually surrendered to Sheldon in a game of kite fighting, thanks to Howard. However, his older brother appears to be one Raj's three brothers, according to his statement in The Hot Troll Deviation. And also, it was in this episode, where Raj claimed that he has two sisters.

Trivia

 * He is 26 years old.


 * He has a Ph.D.
 * He obviously speaks Hindi fluently, since he is from India.
 * Raj is completely not at all serious about his Hindu faith, and eats beef, which is considered a sin.
 * Raj, much like Howard, despises much of Sheldon's antics, and the two managed to get Sheldon on a date with Amy Farrah Fowler on a dating website in The Lunar Excitation, much to Sheldon's dismay.
 * Raj's case of selective mutism was evident in the Pilot episode.
 * "Koothrappali" is a surname from southern India, and the fact that Raj claims that he is from Delhi proves incorrectly, suggesting that Raj is showing off.
 * Whenever Raj gets an idea or wants to say something slightly controversial in a conversation, he whispers it in Wolowitz's ear whenever a woman is around. Wolowitz never wants to say it out loud because it finds it stupid or offensive, but he ends up saying it anyway through scoffing Raj. Sheldon hates him talking in his ear altogether, although he does appreciate Raj's words.
 * He regularly communicates with his parents (V. M. Koothrappali and Mrs. Koothrappali) back in India via webcam. When they become meddling or judgmental, he often "brings his parents" into Leonard and Sheldon's apartment via his MacBook Pro, to seek his friends' support in the discussion.
 * His father is a gynecologist and drives a 'Lease' Bentley.
 * Rajesh often has married-couple-like arguments with Wolowitz and, when nervous, often whispers into his ear leaving him to translate to everyone else.
 * As with Wolowitz, the others in his circle of friends often refer to him by his surname. He frequently wears a purple jacket and a sweater vest.
 * Rajesh preforms vocals when playing Rock Band (albeit extremely badly), which could possibly be a joke because he suffers from selective mutism. Though in a Season 2 promotional photo, he is playing with a guitar controller, so he is either playing the bass or the lead.
 * He despises Guitar Hero because he feels it is lame.
 * Raj is considered the attractive one of the group because women find him foreign and exotic, plus his selective mutism makes him a 'good listener'.
 * Works with/for Sheldon.
 * Featured in People Magazine (30 Under 30 to Watch!)
 * He has MySpace.
 * He has problems talking to women unless he is drunk. In one episode he had special medication for his problem.
 * Unlike the other guys, Raj has shown great interest in some non-geeky things, such as Grey's Anatomy, The Good Wife, Sex and the City and John Grisham novels.
 * Raj, as a matter of fact, is addicted to internet pornography.