Keera: The Spark of Curiosity That Defines Hitesh’s Life （后附中文稿） Lu, Tao, Ph.D. Interviewer Dayang Editing Keera, derives from the Hindi word Kida. Literally, it refers to a "curiosity bug" that burrows into one’s mind and compels constant exploration. It is the core keyword woven into the fabric of Hitesh Seth’s identity. This unquenchable spark of curiosity has accompanied him through every chapter of his life: from a teenage boy in a small hometown overlooking the Taj Mahal, to a world-leading technology architect specializing in finance and healthcare, and finally to a lifelong learner studying at Stanford. Hitesh’s entire life has been ignited by Keera, and he spends every passing day passing Keera on to light up others around him. The Sprouting of Keera: A Small Town in Agra, a ZX Spectrum Sows the Seed of Exploration Hitesh was born in Agra, India, a city where the Taj Mahal comes into view right outside the window. He grew up in an ordinary middle-class household. His family had limited financial means during his youth; he could not afford swimming lessons, and he did not step foot inside a library until much later in life. Even so, the curiosity known as Keera burrowed deep into his heart from an early age. When he was in seventh and eighth grade, an old game console and a ZX Spectrum home computer at the neighborhood grocery store awakened his boundless fascination with technology. He volunteered to type documents for the shop owner just to earn time to use the computer; he taught himself touch typing in seventh grade, and through that clunky basic keyboard, he unlocked the gateway to the world of programming. College admissions competition in India was brutally fierce: hundreds of thousands of students competed for merely two thousand spots at the Indian Institutes of Technology (IIT). Fueled by his passion for mathematics and science, he earned a dual degree from India’s top elite institute, majoring in both chemical engineering and computer science. His school years embodied the simplest core truth of Keera: teaching is the best way to learn. Right before exams, he would not bury his head in review books. Instead, he would meet his classmates to play card games and work through complex math problems together. His mother urged him to focus solely on his own studies, yet he insisted on sharing knowledge with others. This youthful experience solidified a belief within him: curiosity is not a treasure meant to be hoarded for oneself. To share the joy of learning and ignite curiosity in others is where this passion truly finds its purpose. He attended a Catholic missionary school that embraced pluralistic education, introducing him equally to the Bhagavad Gita, the Quran and the Bible. This diverse schooling cultivated an inclusive, open-minded way of thinking. The philosophy from the Bhagavad Gita — "focus on the process, do not dwell on the outcome" — became the life principle he abided by to protect his inner Keera. There is no need to crave instant rewards; simply keep exploring, and opportunities will follow naturally. II. Keera Sails Across Oceans: Thirty Years of Global Career, Endless Inquiry Amid Industry Tides In 1997, driven by an insatiable hunger to learn, Hitesh traveled to New Jersey, the United States, launching a nearly thirty-year overseas career. His inner Keera never faded, pushing him to cross industry boundaries and break through limitations time and again. At the start of his professional journey, he was an active member of the early Java developer community, sharing technical insights on mailing lists and co-authoring a professional technical book. His work caught the eye of overseas enterprises. In his early twenties, he presented to CIOs from the New York Stock Exchange, the World Bank and Bank of America, building integrated frameworks for enterprise ERP systems. After the dot-com bubble burst, he co-founded a startup focused on business activity monitoring. Though the venture ultimately failed, it allowed him to accumulate profound expertise in system architecture. He later held key roles at JPMorgan Chase and American Express. He led the full architecture of Chase.com and took charge of system integration for the merger between JPMorgan Chase and Bank One, spending fourteen years deepening his expertise in fintech. During his tenure at American Express, Keera propelled him onto the global stage. He spearheaded a Sino-US mobile payment joint venture, traveling to Shanghai repeatedly and gaining first-hand insight into China’s financial market. Serving as a technical advisor to Amex Ventures, he assessed the technical potential of startups and identified synergies between emerging companies and American Express’s core business. He then joined IQVIA to build the core technical infrastructure for COVID-19 vaccine clinical trials. Starting from zero, he mastered clinical trial logic, hand-drawn end-to-end architectural blueprints submitted to the FDA, and applied risk management frameworks from finance to patient monitoring systems. Later, he moved to Salesforce to specialize in compliant cloud platforms. Every career shift originated from the exploratory impulse of his Keera. Finance, healthcare and enterprise software appear vastly different on the surface, yet they share overlapping logic in regulation, risk control and user experience — and Hitesh was always willing to start learning each new field from scratch. His father’s love for photography bloomed into another form of Keera within him. The camera became his tool to record everyday human moments and capture tiny sparks of brilliance in ordinary people. Unlike professional hired photographers, he photographs friends as a peer, allowing subjects to relax and reveal their authentic selves, preserving small, precious moments from everyday lives. III. Passing Down Keera: Devoted to Sharing, Becoming a Spark That Lights Others’ Fires To Hitesh, Keera is never a personal trait to be enjoyed alone; it is a flame meant to be passed onward. The greatest sense of fulfillment in his life comes from igniting tiny sparks of curiosity in other people. For years, he has provided one-on-one mentorship and regularly attended the Grace Hopper Celebration of Women in Computing, working to clear barriers for women entering the technology industry. While living in California, he met an Uber driver with an innate talent for mathematics who had dropped out of school due to severe family financial hardship. Hitesh shared free online learning resources with him. Years later, this driver completed college coursework, earned a graduate degree while driving Uber full-time, and transitioned into a software development role. Witnessing this life transformation remains one of Hitesh’s most cherished achievements. Wherever he travels around the world, he actively spreads Keera. In India, he met a tuk-tuk driver brimming with curiosity who knew nothing about AI tools; Hitesh pulled up ChatGPT on the man’s phone and demonstrated its Hindi-language conversational capabilities. On a Nile River cruise, he taught the ship’s crew how to use Duolingo to learn English. He donates all his old mobile phones to service workers with a thirst for knowledge, granting them free access to unlimited online learning resources. In his view, the most vital quality he looks for when hiring talent is not pre-existing technical knowledge, but the Keera spark within a person. Professional knowledge becomes outdated quickly, yet the instinct to keep learning is irreplaceable. He admits mentorship seems selfless on the surface, yet it is profoundly self-serving for him. Explaining concepts, guiding others and answering questions forces him to reorganize his own understanding, making his inner Keera burn brighter. Teaching and learning are simply two sides of the same coin. IV. Keera in the AI Era: Standing at a Transformational Turning Point, Preserving the Essence of Curiosity Hitesh is currently enrolled in Stanford’s SEP program, at a pivotal moment when artificial intelligence is reshaping every industry. He believes 2026 will be a landmark year of transformation, and Keera is humanity’s most vital anchor when navigating AI. AI has drastically lowered barriers to accessing knowledge: generating visuals, writing code and retrieving information can all be completed with one click. Yet tools can never replace active, inquisitive curiosity. Prompt engineering at its core is the art of crafting precise, thoughtful questions. Those who only memorize ready-made answers will be controlled by technology; only those who dare to explore, question and think critically can harness AI as a powerful tool. He is now building compliant development platforms tailored to the highly regulated finance and healthcare sectors, enabling AI tools to operate safely within industry compliance frameworks. His long-term life vision is gentle and clear: he plans to continue advancing his technical career for another five to six years to achieve financial stability, then dedicate himself fully to educational outreach and medical technology research. Losing his father and younger brother at an early age fuels his desire to improve clinical treatment through technology. He aims to bridge the shared technical logic between the two heavily regulated fields of finance and healthcare, using decades of accumulated technical experience to give back to society. He firmly believes every human being is born with Keera. Many people simply remain unaware of free learning tools and growth paths due to information gaps. He does not possess billions of dollars to fund large-scale initiatives; he only wishes to act as an ordinary catalyst. If he can ignite one curious learner during every journey, countless tiny sparks will join together to break down barriers to knowledge. Epilogue Keera is the perpetual driving force defining Hitesh’
