INFOPATH and emacs

[Ritesh]

i've installed a local repository of 'info' files in my home dir
....containing documentation of  the new emacs packages that i've
installed. I've written at appropriate 'dir' file which seems to be 
working fine. 
i've also set INFOPATH:$HOME/info/: in my .bash_profile...the trailing
':' appends the complied in path so that my files are prepended to the
already present files. info program is working fine, that is it displays
the entire info tree beginning with my files as expected. however, echo
$INFOPATH returns /home/ritesh/info: ; ie. it's not displaying the
compiled in path. this is a problem because emacs uses the INFOPATH
variable to look for info files, and now it's only seeing the files that
i've installed and not the compiled in files. 
How can i make emacs read the complete path?