V. M. Koothrappali

Dr. V. M. Koothrappali, MS, MBBS, is the father of Raj Koothrappali, Priya Koothrappali and three other boys and one girl and ex-husband of Mrs. Koothrappali. Most of his appearances have been in a video chat, together with his wife; however, after his divorce, he appears physically for the first time in "The Clean Room Infiltration", when he was at the Christmas party thrown by Amy, where he met the entire main cast.

Series overview

He is a wealthy, presumably retired, gynecologist in India, drives a Bentley and has a large house full of servants. He believes academics have a limited earning potential, and wishes his son would have become a gynecologist too, as he is apparently unaware of his son's selective mutism condition ("The Grasshopper Experiment").

He sometimes took Raj to his gynecology office and Raj got so bored that he put vaginal lubricant at the bottom of his shoes and pretended he was ice-skating ("The Fish Guts Displacement").

In "The Monopolar Expedition", he and his wife won't let Raj go to the North Pole with the other guys because they're afraid he will die.

He and his wife constantly try to match Raj with Indian girls, even though Raj disapproves on several occasions. He has also shown concern (voiced by his wife) about Raj's close friendship with Howard, which for them could be a sign that he is gay. They are also under the impression that Leonard and Sheldon are a gay couple, although Leonard quickly corrects them. Once while Raj was drunk, he introduced Penny to them as his girlfriend. After they call Penny a hotsie-totsie, Penny sets them straight that they would be lucky to have her as a daughter-in-law; Dr. V.M. thinks that she is feisty. They also threatened to cut off his allowance when Penny told them that the deaf girl Emily was using her disability to get Raj to buy her extravagant gifts such as rubies, who then dumped him.

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 Clean Room Infiltration", Raj's father is in the middle of his divorce and visits his son at Christmas time. Raj leaves to help his friends deal with a stray pigeon and his father is left with Amy and Penny and her boring Victorian parlor games. V. M. does Heimlich out a yarn ball caught in Amy's throat.

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

In "The Dependence Transcendence ", Raj calls him to get some advice/insight for a pregnant Bernadette. First he wonders of Raj wants money. Then he listens to Bernadette's problem and tells her that from his experience, even if the expectant mother is not a baby person, that doesn't mean that she won't love her own baby. For example, Raj's mother loved and doted on him and then he broke her heart by moving halfway around the world and dating poor white women. He feels satisfied that he made Raj feel worse and Bernadette better, while wishing that Bernadette gives birth to a daughter.

In "The Allowance Evaporation", Raj after meeting his ex-girlfriends who said he was too spoiled and a momma's boy, tells his father that he was no longer taking any money from him. His father was delighted that his last only unmarried offspring was going to stand on his own two feet.

In "The Wedding Gift Wormhole", it's revealed that he is dating again and decides to set up Raj with a woman for an arranged marriage. He returns in "The Propagation Proposition" via video chat after Raj broke up with Anu and was angry about any money he lost due to the wedding being cancelled.

Appearances

Trivia

• He is one of five fathers of every main cast member who has physically appeared on the show; the others being Penny's father Wyatt, Bernadette's father Mike Rostenkowski, Leonard's father Alfred Hofstadter and Amy's father Larry Fowler (Sheldon's father is dead, Howard's left him at 11, Stuart's is only mentioned, Leslie's hasn't been seen or mentioned and Emily's is only mentioned and possibly dead).
• As mentioned by Sheldon, the Koothrappalis' are "half-way between Bruce Wayne and Scrooge McDuck". Extrapolating data from the Forbes Fictional 15, the Koothrappalis' wealth would be about $37.3 billion. This would make them jointly the 14th wealthiest individuals in the real world (as of late 2014), between Bernard Arnault of LVMH and Michael Bloomberg of Bloomberg LP.
• Raj cuts himself off his father's money. He is relieved, but sad at the same time. His father won't cut him out of the will.
• His wish for Bernadette to have a daughter came true when Bernadette gave birth to a baby girl.
• Leonard and Penny are the only of Raj's friends to talk to Raj's parents by themselves.
• It was revealed in "The Holiday Summation" that V.M. is Sheldon's friend, right between Wil Wheaton and Amy Farrah Fowler.
• Sometimes he gives out bad advice to Raj.

Gallery 

References

1. ↑ Since Raj's cousin Venkatesh's surname is Koothrappali, it should be obvious that he is Raj's paternal cousin through his father's brother, since cousins who have the same surname is when their fathers are brothers and they don't change their surnames. This should imply that Raj's father has at least one brother.
2. ↑ Since Raj's cousin Venkatesh's surname is Koothrappali, it should be obvious that he is Raj's paternal cousin through his father's brother, since cousins who have the same surname is when their fathers are brothers and they don't change their surnames. This should imply that Raj's father is Venkatesh's biological uncle.

External links

• Dr. V. M. Koothrappali on IMDb