Kirnahar (West Bengal), Jul 25 (IANS): "Happy, happy, happy. I'm endlessly happy", said Annapurna Banerjee as she sat here glued to the TV set watching her younger brother Pranab Mukherjee being sworn-in as the country's 13th president.

"I can't tell you how I feel. This is the happiest day of my life," said Annapurna, 83, at her house in this town in West Bengal's Birbhum district.

It was in 1969-70 that Mukherjee, then a first-time MP, had told his sister sitting on the balcony of his flat close to Rashtrapati Bhavan that he wished to be reborn as a pampered and well-fed horse in the president's cavalry.

Annapurna recalled she had then prophesied that he would one day become the nation's president.

Wednesday she was more elated at seeing Mukherjee being given the guard of honour and escorted by the cavalry.

"Now my brother is the boss of the regiment. It was great to see the ceremonial procession with the horses. This is the first time I am seeing this ceremony."

Annapurna said her brother had invited her to the swearing-in ceremony. "But I told him I can't go because of my poor health. He felt bad. But then he told me: 'When I go to Kirnahar, I will meet you and bring you to Rashtrapati Bhavan'."

Annapurna said all these years she had deep in her heart felt a tinge of sadness at Mukherjee not becoming the prime minister. "Today, all that has vanished," she said, smiling.

Annapurna was confident that Mukherjee would be as successful in his new post as he has been in his previous assignments.

"I'm very confident. He will do his work with utmost sincerity. Through his life he has been very sincere -- whether in the football field or in public life," she said.

Annapurna hoped that Mukherjee would come to her home in the next two weeks.

"He is a foodie. Earlier I used to cook for him. Now I can't and my daughters-in-law do it. In the past, whenever some delicious dishes were prepared at our ancestral village Mirati, he used to bring it for me," she said.