Mrs. Koothrappali

Mrs. Koothrappali is the mother of Raj, Priya and four other siblings. She usually communicates with Raj via video chat along with her then-husband, Dr. V. M. Koothrappali. They want Raj to get married and give them grandchildren, but she is unimpressed with Penny as a possible mate for her son especially since she was not Indian. She considers Howard the closest thing she has to a daughter-in-law. She calls him, "that Jewish boy". She enjoys , which is apparently new to India. By 2014, she was filing for divorce. In 2015, they appeared to be divorced. Raj's mother's first name has not been identified.

Series overview
In her first appearance in "The Grasshopper Experiment", She and her husband order Raj to meet with Lalita Gupta whom he knew from childhood, and tell Raj that she has given Lalita Raj's contact information and to expect a phone call. She tells Raj that Lalita is now in dental school and this fact will make a very good match. Raj refuses on the grounds that he is a grown man and will not agree to an. Sheldon interrupts and reminds Raj that Indian parents tend to get a lot involved in their children's relationships. Raj gets mad and questions why Sheldon is explaining his own culture to him, and starts to tell his parents to stop meddling with his life. But Mrs. Koothrappali abruptly says they must go because  is on.



Raj's date with Lalita ends in disaster as he has been drunk and said a lot of insensitive thing to her and she leaves with Sheldon instead because he has complimented her for her resemblance to Princess Panchali, an Indian princess in one of his favorite books from childhood. Raj goes to Leonard and Sheldon's apartment afterwards and talks to his parents again via video chat. Sheldon returns home and Raj blames him for ruining the date. Sheldon mentions that Raj was drunk in the date. Raj's parents asks if he has become an alcoholic after moving to the U.S.. Then they force Raj to take them (actually the laptop computer) outside of the apartment so they can talk to him in private.

In "The Septum Deviation", Raj is worried about what to get his parents for their fortieth wedding anniversary. Later he gets a call from his father that he has moved out and that his parents are getting divorce lawyers. It seems over the years they did not communicate and let a lot of little things boil over until they hated each other. His mother may have also been seeing someone else.



In "The Graduation Transmission", Raj's father threatens to cut him off after he spends too much on a toy helicopter. After flattering both parents, Raj ends up with a huge increase in allowance from both his divorced parents.

Penny and Leonard are the only two to talk to them by themselves. In "The Graduation Transmission", this is first time that Raj's mother is seen not just on video chat.