With the nation's development, rural India is growing increasingly TV-savvy. A problem incurred by this lies in the fact that the portrayals of the Western world and urban India seen in television programs paint pictures quite different from their realities.

It is via this skewed medium that rural community members of all ages gain misguided impressions of urban life's promises and Western ideals. Misguided perceptions are not limited to rural dwellers; rather, they are maintained in all contexts concerned here.

Similarly skewed perceptions of village life are often held by those represented in the scenes played on the blue tube: misconception is found on both sides of the glass.

Many living in the western world are entirely ignorant of what realities are found in contemporary villages, and most urban residents even in India live unaware of the paradigm changes that have occurred in rural areas over recent years.

Generally speaking, the populations represented on television live unaware that the rural reality is changing everyday. With India's sprawling, rapid development, the reality of a pristine, independent small village is becoming a myth.

The spread of urbanization has taken root and is making its mark: the ideals of communities and individuals are now evolving rapidly under changing forces that influence them. NGOs like Vision of India work to bridge this gap by removing the glass that separates and skews these realities.

Through visits to the village of Abheypur and interactions with its residents, learning about the realities lived there, outsiders from urban areas and abroad are given a double-edged golden opportunity.

They are given an experience that will enhance their understanding of a culture quickly merging with their own; at the same time, they have the privilege of acting as ambassadors of the outside cultures that the local people they interact with know little realistic representation of.

My personal experience with the Vision of India project brought me a highlighted appreciation for the inherent need for intercultural dialogues to occur at and between every level of society. The expanded understanding of even one person in any context is the equivalent of planting a seed of truth. Interacting with villagers in Abheypur, I became acutely aware of this new role I'd been given to play as I learned the details of villagers' daily routines, the norms they are accustomed to which seemed out-of-this-world to me: rising before dawn to fetch the day's water, for example.

I quickly realized the symbiosis of our dialogues when I was asked about my own home, the United States. A garden was being planted in my brain, I also found myself given the opportunity to play the role of teacher/ seed-sower.

A moment that particularly stands out in my mind arose in a conversation I held with a boy who is enrolled in Vision of India's educational program and is just a few years younger than me. At first he wasn't sure if he wanted to ask this, only said he had some question; but when I told him- Chaman is his name- that I'd try to answer regardless of what it was, and promised he couldn't, wouldn't offend me, he quickly came out with it.

"In America," he asked, "do the white people really hate all the black people?" He went on to explain, "This is how it seems on the television program." I quickly responded with, "No!" I was immediately struck with a realization of how complex and varied the culture of my homeland is, and also that even I as a resident surely don't know the half of it.

I did my best to articulate a more accurate snapshot of interracial relations in the US: what one sees on TV may come close to justly depicting some realities, but it is far from the norm, I told the group of boys that had circled me to listen. It depends on geographical location, socio-economic factors, and especially the way and what local people grew up accustomed to and influenced by.

Black people and white people in America have been recognized as equal for decades now, sort of similar to the way the caste system in India has been done away with. But, I explained, as with the caste system, traditions of prejudice and perception come to be engrained in people's mindsets.

And because of this it usually takes generations upon generations for a society as a whole to be clear of them. America, like India, I think, is still in the cleansing process of working toward true social equality.

Our two countries are not so very different, I discovered in my six month stay in India, and this is just one example of the likenesses to be counted. I like to think that through dialogues like this one and the interaction Vision of India groups have with the villagers we meet through the program, individuals on both sides are brought to feel measurably closer to those who are "outsiders" to their homes.

As globalization flattens the world, I predict this term, "outsider," will become meaningless; we will increasingly engage worldwide on the same playing field, interacting with peoples of all types, of all origins.