DUKE STARS — Avinash Maheshwary
 Name: Avinash Maheshwary
Years of service: 40
Title: Triangle Universities Libraries Network South Asia Librarian
Department: International & Area Studies, Duke University Libraries
Avinash Maheshwary could have had a career in the glitz and glamour of the movies, but he chose books over Bollywood.
"When I was growing up in India, the one thing I truly loved was books. I wanted to become a librarian, but my father was a film producer in Bollywood, India's version of Hollywood, and we didn't see eye to eye on my interests," said Maheshwary. "To my father, becoming a librarian for the love of books was like a person becoming a bank teller for the love of money. Ironically, he himself was a voracious reader, but he believed that librarians never had time to read books."
Attempting to appease his father, Maheshwary dabbled in the film business for a few years. But eventually, despite his father's insistence that his reasoning to become a librarian was wrong, Maheshwary decided to pursue his dream job.
Maheshwary worked at the National Library of India for three years, yet he wasn't satisfied with the library profession in India and wanted to see a new part of the world. He applied for positions in the United States and after a three year search, he received an offer from Duke. In July 1967, he took the position of South Asia librarian with Duke University Libraries.
Forty years later, Maheshwary still oversees the South Asia collection housed in Bostock Library. During his tenure, the collection has grown tremendously in size and stature from under 30,000 volumes to more than 250,000 today.
"Duke's collection is now considered one of the finest in the country," Maheshwary said. "It has been a privilege to collaborate with so many scholars and librarians in building it. No single person can take all the credit."
Working at Duke also enabled Maheshwary to form the contacts necessary to achieve another lifelong dream, founding his own publishing company, The Acorn Press, which has published 24 books on various subjects since 1981.
"Professional support was one of the biggest incentives for me to remain at Duke," said Maheshwary. "Without it, many of my dreams never would have materialized — including the publishing company."
But the most important contact Maheshwary met through Duke was his wife Indu who had arrived a few months prior to Maheshwary as a post-doctoral student in History.
"We were both from Bombay and actually had lived only a few houses away from each other there, but we did not know each other," Maheshwary said. "They say that some marriages are made in heaven, but ours was made in Durham!"
Although his intentions were only to stay in the United States a few years, four decades later, and now an American citizen, Maheshwary has enjoyed a distinguished and satisfying career.
"Duke is such an intellectually vibrant and culturally invigorating environment. The diversity of the international community, the quality of the faculty, the generosity of my many colleagues — these things have truly enriched my life," said Maheshwary. "Forty years at Duke go very quickly when you are surrounded by such wonderful people."
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