Family of Four

By

KT Rajagopalan

The question:

The family living in the apartment next to mine consists of four persons: Brajesh, his wife Madhuri, their son Mithun and daughter Chitra. One of them is a doctor and the other is a banker. Brajesh is older than his wife and Chitra is younger than her brother.

1.  If the doctor and the banker are of the same sex, then the banker is older than the doctor.

2.  If neither the doctor nor the banker is the parent of the other, then the doctor is older than the banker.

3.  If the doctor is a man, then the doctor and the banker are of the same age.

4.  If the doctor and the banker are of opposite sex then the man is older than the woman.

5.  If the banker is a woman, then the banker is older than the doctor.

Who is the doctor?

(a) Brajesh   (b) Madhuri  (c) Chitra     (d) Cannot be determined 

Let us see if the conventional approach works in this case.

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