We are no stranger to the fact that we are moving towards a more urban conglomeration - as progressive as our metropolitan cities may be, we cannot deny that the heart and soul of India lives in her villages. While bigger cities are always in a rush to develop and grow, the rush to nowhere rarely touches these rural areas and it’s this that makes them utterly unique. While maintaining their old charm, some of them have progressed, developed and adopted a broader way of living a fulfilling life that will easily put most metro cities to shame. Chamravattom, Kerala Chamravattom in Kerala is India's first computer literate village. Chamravattom in Kerala is India's first 100 percent computer-literate village. 850 families completed basic computer literacy training and everyone in the village can now handle a personal computer, create and edit pictures, compose text using a specially-designed Malayalam language tool, surf the Internet, send email and make Internet telephony voice calls. You have the tech-savvy village to thank that made us proud and broke all stereotypes about Indian villages.

Hiware Bazar, Maharashtra

There are a record 60 millionaires in the village now and barely any poor.

At times, all it takes for a fairy-tale change is one person - in this case that one man is Popatrao Pawar. He banned all addictive substances to minimize expenses and thereby, regulated the economy by encouraging the villagers to invest in rainwater harvesting, milch cattle, etc. There are a record 60 millionaires in the village now and barely any poor. Whoa!

Dharnai, Bihar

Dharnai in Bihar is India's first fully solar-powered village.

Whenever we talk about villages or remote areas in India, electricity is a major concern. Dharnai, a village in Bihar, beat 30 years of darkness by developing its OWN solar-powered system for electricity. With a lot of people moving out of their villages because of better facilities, here's one that is self-sufficient and fiercely independent. Only if some cities and other villages followed suit!