I agree to a large extent that the male characters are superior to the female characters in the novel because

of the different treatments the girls, Aruna and Uma, got compared to what Arun, the male, in the family got. When Mama was asked to take care of the girls, Uma and Aruna, she only kept a cursory eye on the little girls as they played in the dry patch of grass and only intervened irritably when they quarreled too loud. This shows that the girls are not even important in their parents eyes so much so that their safeties are negligible. Also, Mama tend to get irritated by the girls easily. This shows how low Mamas level of tolerance is for the girls. Moreover, there is a juxtaposition between the girls and Arun regarding the type of attention they get from their parents. When Arun was born, Mama claimed that he cannot be left to the hands of the servant but when Uma pointed out that the servant took care of her and Aruna as babies too, Mamas expression made it clear it was quite a different matter now, and she repeated threateningly Proper Attention. It is obvious that the male characters are more superior to the female characters in the novel because from Mamas request, we can see that as long as her precious son is involved, she is obligated to give him the best of everything, including insignificant details like his babysitter. Mama did not hide her biasedness towards Arun when Uma reminded her that ayah took care of them when they were babies, this shows that Mama thinks that the males ought to receive different treatments compared to the females. The males are to be given proper attention, which indirectly show the leniency in the attention given to the girls. Therefore, the male characters are more superior to the female characters in the novel because of the better treatment the males get in the Indian family.