It was a little while ago. I was in Imphal in one of those charming, tiny no-star hostels so typical of the North-East. "Can you tell me on which channel I can get Doordarshan?", I asked the cheerful room boy. "What is that?" he answered, genuinely puzzled. "Just ask the cable operator", I suggested. He soon returned. "I have asked the cable operator but he says he can't give it, because no one wants it."

When I asked the famous film director Aribam Shyam Sharma, he confirmed that all young people, including his children, were hooked to Indonesian, Thai and Australian TV apart from Star and Zee. Because Indonesian TV shows the latest American films with sub-titles and the original English dialogue. And Australian TV has some of the best serials in that region. Immigrants from Burma in the North-East also get Burmese TV quite easily. And the Western music-loving Khasis, Mizos and the rest get all that they want from Chinese radio.

One year after that, in little Barapani, everyone was watching the World Cup Football. But not on Doordarshan with its bad reception, frequent interruptions for the news and change of channels. They were watching everything comfortably and uninterrupted on Indonesian TV. It was the same in Guwahati as I passed through. In fact, some Assamese friends living in low-lying areas said they had to use special dishes to get DD. And in Laban and other areas of Shillong they could not get Guwahati, about 100 kms away "because of the hills".

Haven't we heard the same excuse in Kashmir? But they got Bangladesh TV quite easily. The bright Naga executive in Shillong AIR who was making a fine job of the North-East channel confessed with a wry smile that although they were getting fan mail from Latin America, people in the North-East had great difficulty in getting this elite channel.

The sad story does not end there. The people in Laban and the Barak Valley and the whole of the North-East, even when not Bengali-speaking, get Bangladesh TV much more easily than Doordarshan's national channels. And the local channels are not of much help, for several reasons. Taking only Guwahati as an example, it is bogged down in badly produced low quality lok geet. And commissioned programmes have become a business proposition rather than an artistic one. Moonlighting has become so rampant that no one batted an eyelid when a member of the staff had programmes commissioned in his wife's name.

The same applies to programmes on the national channels, which are now in the hands of dalals with Delhi-based production houses which get favoured treatment although, some of them do not even know the North-East languages.

The Congress party spokesperson in Assam has allegedly been running a news programme for around two years. The Home Ministry and the Assam government also have a large voice in the choice of producers and personnel, one particular person having been chosen because the father was posted in the North-East some time ago. Which is why genuine experts like Sanjoy Hazarika, who were producing quality current affairs programmes were either shunted out or left in disgust. Some rare programmes about the N.E. were shown after 11 p.m.

And what does the rest of India get about the North-East, although many believe it is an even more dangerously turbulent area than Kashmir? How many items about the North-East does one get in the national news, unless there is a train blown up or terrorists in Tripura? Guwahati TV does not have a proper newsroom and its limited news staff are not encouraged to venture out to districts or villages. Longer news items are sent on videos to Delhi with erratic air connections, and seldom get used in any case.

It is a sad reflection on DD, that its erstwhile correspondent, Bano Haralu left and joined Star TV. She sends excellent daily despatches from all over the North-East and does not have any equals. Because while the promised high-power transmitters seldom materialise, there is no excuse for the dismal quality of programmes. So the rest of India sees the North-East only through Bihu dances, Naga warrior dances and a choral group during Christmas.

The one worthwhile programme on the North-East in recent memory was Sanjoy Hazarika's outstanding six-part documentary on the Brahmaputra which showed the variety of landscapes and culture in that region. Even Bhupen Hazarika's programmes seldom venture outside Assam.

Perhaps the malaise is best summed up by the plaint of a Naga broadcaster who told me. "We are never posted outside the North-East, not even to Delhi to get a perspective on the rest of the country. That is the only way to make the North-East feel it is a vital part of the Indian nation. When that day comes, perhaps I will not feel so hurt and humiliated when a Khasi girl says to me in Shillong, where I grew up, are you from India?" And the chief minister of Nagaland will not be asked for his passport in a five-star hotel in Mumbai.