Raj
1. He loves Broadway Musicals.
He didn't hear American music until he was twelve. His father arranged a screening of Annie for Raj, Priya and their little brother Raghu in the television room.
Raghu got bored within the first ten minutes, and Priya claimed she couldn't understand anyone's accent, but Raj was entranced. He sat gaping in wonderment at the lavish sets and huge, complex dance numbers. He watched it four times in a row before running into his Dad's study and begging for more "American songs and dancers." Dr. Koothrapalli, abiet hesitantly, sent the servants out to find Grease, Gypsy and Fiddler On The Roof for his oldest son. Raj adds a new DVD to his collection every year.
2. He almost failed 1st grade.
Even the private school in Mumbai wasn't very clean or well equipped. Raj was so shy and scared of everyone his teachers assumed he was stupid, that there was something wrong with him. The other kids and even the teachers taunted him on the playground.
"Pagal hai!" They yelled, pushing him down the school's front stairs. "Stupid boy!"
It got so bad Raj stopped doing his home work and paying attention in school. He almost started to believe them.
Almost.
3. He's broken every bone in his body.
Raj was an antsy child. Constantly running, skipping, dancing, jumping and twirling. What he couldn't make himself say with his words, he's say with movement. Unfortunately, that meant he was constantly pitching himself over walls and climbing up stair railings. Over time, he's snapped, crushed, twisted and fractured every bone in from his nose to his ribs.
4. He's allergic to almost everything.
Cats, wheat, strawberries, you name it, it makes Raj throw up. His friends have no idea how many pills he takes just to go out to dinner with them. But after seeing all the mocking Leonard goes through, he keeps his mouth shut.
5. He hates himself sometimes.
After a long day spent with Penny or some female lab worker, Raj just sits on his couch and cries. He wishes more than anything he could just be normal like Howard and Leonard. How they could hold a goddamn conversation without becoming a drunken douche bag. He hates that he can't just act like a normal person.
6. Whenever he gets sad, he looks at Pluto.
No matter how cold it is, Raj'll take his telescope up to the roof of his building. He'll set it up, aim it, and stare up at the little dot 60 trillion miles away. There's something soothing about knowing he's not the smallest, most isolated thing in the universe.
7. His parents thought he was deaf.
Raj didn't speak until he was almost four years old. Not to mention, he couldn't talk to anyone outside his family until his late teens. And that was only the delivery men. Time and time again, the Koothrapallis had Raj's hearing checked. Time and time again the doctors told them Raj was just a Pagal hai.
It killed them almost as much as it did Raj.
8. He misses India.
He loves his friends and his job, but he's always a bit homesick. Not for all the doctors and bullies who made him so sad, but for the noise and family and culture he secretly likes. Pasadena is no where near as warm as home.
9. He's constantly scared his friends will turn on him.
He never had any friends growing up. He didn't make any until he started working at CalTech, when he was twenty two years old. He can't believe Howard, Leonard, Sheldon, Penny, Bernadette and Amy actually want to hang out with him.
He's can't help waiting for it all to be some cruel trick pulled by the popular kids.
10. He's been in love with Howard Wolowitz for three and a half years.
Everyday is one day closer to Howard and Bernadette's wedding.
And everyday Raj's heart breaks a little more.