Raj Koothrappali
Rajesh Ramayan "Raj" Koothrappali, Ph.D. is a fictional character and one of the protagonists of the CBS television series The Big Bang Theory, portrayed by British-Indian actor Kunal Nayyar. He is one of four main male characters in the show, alongside Sheldon Cooper, Leonard Hofstadter and Howard Wolowitz to appear in every episode of The Big Bang Theory. Raj is based on a computer programmer that the show's co-creator, Bill Prady, knew when he was a programmer.
Character biography
In the series, Raj is Howard's best friend. They have what Nayyar calls a "bromance".Raj works as an astrophysicist in the Physics Department at Caltech. It was revealed in "The Monster Isolation" that Raj did at least part of his higher education at the University of Cambridge, where he discovered his interest in astrophysics.
He had selective mutism, which did not allow him to talk to women outside of his family unless he was under the influence of alcohol, until the season 6 finale.
Rajesh, who is normally called Raj or just by his surname Koothrappali, is from New Delhi, India. However, he despises Indian food, and his knowledge about Indian culture and Hinduism is often rebuked by Sheldon, who is seen to speak better Hindi than him.
In the show, he was born into a wealthy Malayali family and has five siblings, one of whom is Priya, a former on-again, off-again girlfriend of Leonard. Raj is normally seen wearing a layered combination of a printed shirt and sweater vest under a track top-style windbreaker with khakis or cargo pants and skate shoes. White briefs are Raj's underpants of choice. Raj wore a red cap in the pilot episode, but has not worn any headgear on a regular basis for the rest of the series run. Between seasons two and eleven, Raj styled his naturally curly hair with hair straighteners and hair gel "while trying to blend in".
Personality
In the show, Raj is more patient and tolerant of Sheldon than Leonard, Penny, or Howard. Sheldon is completely oblivious to this and even casually cuts him off as a friend on one occasion to accommodate a friendship with one of their colleagues, Barry Kripke.Another recurring joke is his metrosexuality, which manifests itself in his appreciation for media generally associated with female patrons, such as the novel Eat, Pray, Love, the TV series Sex and the City and films featuring Sandra Bullock. This has led those close to him to believe that he is somewhat feminine, and others to mistakenly conclude that he is homosexual, which he typically denies, but which Howard often teases him over.
In the show, one of Raj's biggest personality quirks is his tendency to speak or act inappropriately, often landing him in trouble or leading to an angry reaction from whomever he has upset. This was particularly pronounced when he was under the influence of alcohol, which could cause a Catch-22, since for years he needed alcohol to even speak to a woman, but the alcohol led to him saying the wrong things. On one occasion, just as Leonard and Penny are about to have intercourse in their hotel room, Raj enters and proceeds to climb into Sheldon's recently vacated bed, completely oblivious of what he has interrupted. On another occasion, he openly discusses having had crushes on Penny and Bernadette directly in front of them, and unwittingly hurting Amy's feelings when he admits that he never had a crush on her after she asks.
When socializing with his friends, despite his Indian accent, Raj is noted for using slang and using the word "dude", although on some occasions he appears to not understand American slang. He speaks fluent Hindi, but according to Sheldon, his mother tongue is English. When Raj offers to teach Sheldon Hindi in order to give him a challenge, and Sheldon in turn demonstrates his Hindi skills which he learnt at age eight, Raj admits that he never learned Hindi.
Raj can play the guitar and has formed a filk band called "Footprints on the Moon" with Howard. They write songs about various fictional characters, such as "Thor and Doctor Jones", which tells the story of an imaginary encounter between Thor and Indiana Jones.
Selective mutism
Until the season six finale, Raj's principal characteristic is his inability to speak to or around unrelated women, a form of a medical condition known as selective mutism. In the show, this was alluded to by Dr. Beverly Hofstadter, Leonard's mother. Raj also stated he has selective mutism in the episode "The Cornhusker Vortex". Raj is able to speak in the presence of women only when they are part of a crowd, if he drinks alcoholic beverages, if he is under influence of other drugs, if he is unaware of their presence, or if the woman is deaf. He observes that this was an improvement over his previous affliction, in which the presence of women caused him to lose bladder control. He had no problem speaking to his mother, sisters, or other female relatives, which led them to dispute his difficulties.Until the end of the sixth season, Raj remains silent when Penny is present. Penny occasionally taunts him about this, saying such things as "Yo, Raj, talk to me". Raj sometimes whispers what he wants to say to Howard or Leonard, who then repeats his words or responds to his question out loud. However, Howard sometimes uses the situation to amuse himself—for example, when he "confesses" on Raj's behalf that Raj had stalked Penny with binoculars, or when Sheldon calls Penny over to their table to silence Raj; Howard then refuses to act as a mouthpiece and tells Raj, "No no no, he won; Suck it up." In "The Dumpling Paradox", Leonard jokingly suggests cutting Raj in half so the group can play video games without Howard while Penny is in the room: Raj turns to Leonard and responds, "Oh, sure, cut the foreigner in half. There's a billion more where he came from." Later, in "The Bat Jar Conjecture", Raj accidentally utters the words "good story", much to the surprise of his friends, but he immediately realizes Penny is there and covers his mouth with both hands. A recurring gag was for Raj to find himself left alone when his friends, in the company of Penny or another woman, make plans to go somewhere and Raj's mutism prevents him from speaking up to join in.
In "The Grasshopper Experiment", Penny inadvertently discovers that Raj's mutism could be suppressed by consuming alcohol: even a tiny amount enables him to have prolonged conversations with women; however, this also tends to make him loud and obnoxious. When the main characters take a train to an academic conference in San Francisco, Raj can talk to series guest Summer Glau while drinking beer, until Leonard inadvertently reveals the beer is non-alcoholic and that Raj is subject to a placebo effect; Howard subsequently uses this to his advantage and Raj reverts to his usual mute self. In some episodes, Raj takes to carrying a hip flask with him to counter his problem, while in other episodes that required him to speak with Penny or other women present, he was usually shown doing so with a beer or wine glass near him to indicate he had consumed alcohol.
Throughout the show, Raj experiments with medications that suppressed social anxiety, but they tend to have side effects. When Sheldon's attractive sister Missy visits, Raj takes medicine that enables him to speak to her, but it results in involuntary repetitive hand motions. In the episode "The Wildebeest Implementation", Raj is worried that an experimental drug he is considering might affect his rationality, but Sheldon encourages him to take it anyway: however, Raj's worries are realized while speaking to a woman in a coffee shop when he completely loses all his inhibitions and takes off all of his clothes.
At the end of the season 6 finale "The Bon Voyage Reaction", Raj's girlfriend Lucy breaks up with him. The subsequent trauma apparently cures his mutism, and he finds he can talk to Penny, Amy, and Bernadette while completely sober. However, he talks so much that the women become bored and irritated and start drinking in order to put up with him. In season 12, after agreeing to enter into an arranged marriage with Anu and her proposal that they sleep together in anticipation, his mutism briefly returns due to pressure: after coming down with a cold, Raj discovers that he can overcome his mutism by taking NyQuil.
Family
In the show, Raj regularly communicates with his parents, Dr. V. M. and Mrs. Koothrappali, back in India via webcam.A running gag in the series is Raj portraying himself as having come from humble origins and growing up in poverty in India, only for his friends to remind him that his father is a gynaecologist, drives a Bentley, and had servants. In the episode "The Wiggly Finger Catalyst", Sheldon reveals that Raj's family is wealthier than he lets on. He observes that they are "Richie Rich rich", which he explains is "halfway between Bruce Wayne and Scrooge McDuck".
Raj's cousin Sanjay works in a call centre and is mentioned in a number of episodes. In one episode, Raj tries to avoid returning to India for his cousin's wedding, as Raj's parents have arranged a date for him.
Raj has three brothers and two sisters. Raj's sister Priya has a one-night stand with Leonard in Season 4. This leads to a brief argument between Leonard, Raj and Howard for breaking the "pinky swear" that Leonard and Howard made about never trying to make a move on her. Later in the series, Priya and Leonard start a relationship against Raj's wishes, which is awkward as she is living with Raj at the time. In the Season 4 finale, Raj had to move temporarily into Sheldon's apartment after overhearing Leonard using Star Trek references as sexual metaphors to his sister. In the Season 11 episode 23 "The Sibling Realignment", He mentions his brother Adoot to Sheldon and Leonard. Adoot was always mean to him, when they were children, he left the front door open causing Raj's pet mongoose to run away.
Also, in the season 3 episode "The Precious Fragmentation", Raj tries to negotiate the possession of the One Ring with the help of his cousin Venkatesh Koothrappali, who is an attorney.
In the season 7 episode "The Table Polarization", Raj talks about naming his first child Dileep after his grandfather.