What portrait of the family do we get from the story "A Snake on the Grass" by R. K. Narayan? Are the sons calculating?

R. K. Narayan’s short story “A Snake In the Grass” is less
about the snake mentioned in the little than about the family whose compound the snake
enters. Narayan describes various members in the family in a number of ways, including
the following:

• The family consists of a mother
  and her four sons. They are apparently wealthy enough to live in a compound and to be
  able to afford “an old servant” named Dasa – the only character mentioned by
  name.


• The family members swear at Dasa when he dismisses
  news of the snake. They also threaten to fire him if he doesn’t quickly catch the snake.
  Both behaviors suggest that the family members – including the sons – are not especially
  kind.


• The fact that the family members have to discuss
  whether to buy a grass cutter suggests that they are not spectacularly
  rich.


• The “second son” of the house declares that he
  knows how to buy things even during wartime, thereby suggesting either that he is highly
  practical or that he knows the tricks of the wartime economy. When a neighbor
  contradicts the son, a “heated debate” follows, suggesting that the son does not like to
  be contradicted.


• The narrator notes that
  at

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this point the college boy of the house butted in
with: “I read in an American paper that 30,000 people die of snake bite every
year.”

This news greatly
upsets his mother and makes her condemn Dasa even more strongly, suggesting (1) that the
boy likes to parade his knowledge (“knowledge” that may in fact be exaggerated); (2)
that he may enjoy upsetting his mother; and (3) that he may not care how his report will
affect Dasa’s situation. His elaboration upon his comments strongly supports
possibilities 2 and 3. Indeed, his further comments suggest that he may have a sense of
humor and is deliberately trying to provoke his mother. Certainly he seems to be
demonstrating both literal and figurative calculation in his further
comments.

• On the positive side, at least the
  sons take a hand (literally) in cutting down the vegetation in which the snake may be
  hiding. They do not leave the job entirely to Dasa. They are not completely lazy and
  feckless.


• Their casual dismissal of a visiting beggar
  makes them appear less than entirely attractive.


• On the
  other hand, their admiration of the supposed skills of a snake charmer suggest that they
  are not completely cynical. (Perhaps they are even a bit
  naïve.)


• The sons are calculating in the sense that they
  make plans to “protect themselves from reptiles in the future,” but this kind of
  calculation seems only sensible.


• They are calculating as
  well in the sense that they keep “a safe distance” from the pot in which Dasa claims to
  have trapped the snake. Again, however, this kind of calculation is
  understandable.


• The fact that Dasa becomes “the hero of
  the day” suggests that the family members are willing to give him credit when he seems
  to do a good job. They admire him and even decide to reward
  him.


• Even when they suspect that Dasa has deceived them,
  they are not too upset.  All in all, then, the family and the sons seem more comical
  than cynically calculating in any evil
  way.