The academic year is nearing its end here in China. Well, not really nearing the end but almost there, especially for teachers who want to look for a new job. Foreign teachers are typically offered one-year contracts and sometimes a one-term contract. Universities and schools start looking for teachers well before the new term/year begins and teachers need to start applying and negotiating with prospective employers.

I, too, need to start looking and going through hundreds of job ads. I'll probably need to send in hundreds of applications as well before I get a response or find a job.

My ancestors made the cardinal 'mistake' of settling down in India and not in Europe, US or Australia and I must pay the price for their mistake. Mistake, because most employers will reject my application the moment they see the entry for 'Nationality'. Employers want US/Australian/UK/Ireland nationals to teach at their schools. However, if the colour of one's skin is white and eyes blue they might reconsider an application.

My ancestors have given me brown skin, brown-black eyes and black hair. This compounds their mistake and makes it much more difficult for me to find a teaching job in China and elsewhere.I couldn't do much to change the colour of my skin and eyes though I did consider investing in a pair of blue-tinted contact lenses. I have, with great effort, turned my black hair to grey but most employers can see through that so I earn no brownie points for my achievement.

S.Korea, Japan, Vietnam, Mexico, Taiwan and other countries hungry for foreign teachers are more rigid than China in their choice of teachers. I have next to zero chances of finding employment there. China is relatively easier, if hundreds and close to a thousand applications can be considered easier. After all, I have worked here for four years and that is far better than Korea, Japan, Taiwan, Mexico etc. I haven't worked in these at all and don't expect to. I might need to post tens of thousand of applications there to get so much as an acknowledgement. That is wasting global resources and putting unnecessary strain on the poor world wide web. Why clog the cyberspace with pleas for employment, I reason and lay off.

My years of business and teaching experience in China, some knowledge of Chinese and ability to speak a few other languages means nothing to employers. They don't even want to give me any credit for having published my writing and a book of short-stories.

My nationality and skin-colour are disqualification enough.

I wonder how global our world is. Is it global, really global? Or is it just a ball that rolls impotently on, spun unwillingly by hands that seem to hold all the power?

I take solace in Khayyam, in his wisdom and his Rubaiyat:

'The Ball no question makes of Ayes and Noes, But Here or There as strikes the Player goes; And He that toss'd you down into the Field, He knows about it all - HE knows - HE knows!