One comes across a lot of interesting profiles on Orkut – the social networking site most popular in Brazil and India. It offers a good example of what in Sociology is called ‘dramatic role presentation’ (aka inflated personality). I often surf profiles on Orkut to amuse myself and also leave comments on scrapbooks (and bookmark them) if I am awed by the profiles.
The ‘about me section, ideal match, first thing you’ll notice about me, my idea of a perfect first date, five things I cannot live without, in my bedroom you’ll find’ are some of the columns which have the most interesting answers. An obvious reason is that they are open-ended questions (i.e. no fixed answers are offered and the user can fill it). It will not be an exaggeration to say that Orkut (and other social networking sites) are giving incentives to users to be more creative (though there are copycats too).
I am here to write about the ‘looks’ column on Orkut. The five options are:
>beauty contest winner
>very attaractive
>attractive
>average
>mirror-cracking material
This is in descending order meaning beauty contest winner gets 5 out of 5 on a scale of 5 while mirror-cracking material gets 1/5. In other words, mirror-cracking material is a euphemism for ‘ugly’!
However, it is common to find many/most beautiful people opting for ‘mirror-cracking material’ while they should be opting for ‘beauty-contest winner’! 
A few minutes ago, I received a friend request on Orkut from one Ms Roy of Kolkata; she is good-looking but not quite the mirror-cracking material! Ha! Ha!
So, are you still mirror-cracking material?! Or for that matter jealous of those who are mirror-cracking material?! I am neither!
By the way, did you know that Orkut is named after its creator (a Google employee): Orkut Büyükkökten?! And if I can change one thing on Orkut it will be their error message: Bad bad server. No donut for you ! This Americanised excuse should get a desi touch: something like ‘no pakoras for you’! Click here for my Orkut profile!
P.S.: I sort of always realized this but it was Priyanka, my friend, who recently reminded me this (who in turn was reminded by her friend). So, the inspiration and credit for this post goes to them. By the way, Priyanka was a self-confessed ‘mirror-cracking material’! She is now a beauty-contest winner.
May be you can ask Priyanka why did she chose to describe herself as “mirror cracking”? Thanks for visit to my blog & comment. You sound interesting person.
Hello Ashish,
Thank you for taking time to visit my blog.
Priyanka is a good-looking girl and like many in the cyberspace she thought ‘mirror-cracking’ was a compliment. She’ll read this post too in some time; it’ll be interesting to hear/read her comments.
Vikas
I secretly visit profiles too.. Its greattt fun..
Btw, I didn’t realise that its the last on the list!!!
My answer to that question on my profile is – “No Answer”
It is fun indeed!
Well, you may write ‘no answer’ Ambika but any investigative mind can find it a minute that you are “beauty with brains”!
So are you an investigative mind..??
(miss no chance for a prospective compliment, you see..) 
Brains, may be someone will be able to say.. But ‘beautiful’, who knows..!!!
Yesterday evening my husband n i had a bed on this phrase “mirror-cracking material”!..i had this notion that its use to denote the best but he insisted that its used to denote “ugly duckling”..so we had a bet over 100 dollars…
:P ..
am so sad i lost it but at the same time hapy that he knew it!!
This peice was very enlightening though n very well written without the usage of any flowery language!!
Keep up te good work Vikas..now i will often drop in to read ur blog coz its really interesting!!!
best wishes
oops am neha shekhar n not neha shekhat..
:P..
hi,
i was browsing with the same confusions in mind as i always thought it denoted extreme ugliness but people who i know are good-looking using that phrase ( and somebody insisted on it being on the better side) on orkut made me google… so the result was i realised my musings werent isolated as i came across a blog post through which i found yours( that makes coming across two gud blogs in a day)… so nice post… wud like to read more of it.
Hey, thanks for dropping by!
What did you think of my Orkut profile, I’m curious. Drop in a response on my blog if you want to.
You should have seen it while I was in school though – uff, ek dum full-on sarcasm and wit xD
Heheh.
Fun post. Will check out more!
TC
hhaaa..good post….I guess I am too a mirror cracking material….
I always knew by order in Orkut that it means for ugly and suites me but I realized that many would take opposite meaning and will get me wrong so I don’t answer this question.
In India, It is a common compliment that you would break mirror as you are looking so good.
In my opinion, Orkut should change this choice considering cultural differences among countries and companies should do more research among user bases.
i think the more appropriate statement here would be….to have a face for a radio job…..as i have one(the job i mean
)
There is a post which I have written in my blog which you ought to check out….named Orkut Personalities. You will find that our thoughts match….especially when Orkut is concerned.
i always use to browse hre with confusin ”mirror cracking material”
simran is now a good frd of mine but she is mention tht she is looking lik a mirror cracking material
…….i wana now wht is this
so i found tht some ppl is use dis for uglyness but i think its a symbol of beauty who crack the mirror……….
thank u
Hmm! I can trust Anu… , your closest and oldest friend on this! It’s her testimonial!
Hey Mr and Mrs Neha Shekhar,
Welcome to my blog! Glad to know this post helped you. Sad to know that the woman lost; I want women to win!
By the way, I also didn’t know about mirror-cracking material until Priyanka opened my eyes! Mr Neha is really a very smart man! He is richer by 100 dollars, ahem ahem!
The statistical analysis of my blog tells me that search engines often send me visitors whenever this keyword is searched! Thank you for commenting.
And welcome again to my blog. And do tell me if you guys have a blog or website.
Vikas
PhD student
JNU
New Delhi.
That’ s your humble opinion Aryan’s mom! I have seen your pic; you are NOT mirror-cracking material.
Parag, your comment had gone to the spam queue due to a WordPress error. Sorry about that.
LOL Amit!
Many people think that RJs are good looking!
Okay Sourabh, I wish you had left your blog link [URL]. I am finding it on google anyway. Thanks.
IMHO “I also didn’t knew …” part in your comment is grammatically incorrect and as ugly as mirror-cracking material. Instead it should be “I also didn’t know …” I hope you won’t commit this mistake again.
Amit, it’s uglier. Thanks a lot. – Vikas