“I am a Rahul Dravidian, sir...” a heady teenage girl’s opening words as part of her question to Rahul Dravid at a session that featured sports writer Suresh Menon, scholar Ian Buruma with Rajdeep Sardesai as anchor, drew maximum applause. This was a scene from a panel discussion during last week’s sixth edition of the DSC Jaipur Literature Festival.

Dravid, ever bashful and tongue tied with praise of this kind, chuckled and almost turned pink in the wintry Jaipur sun, on hearing this term that celebrated his name. But then, Dravid is probably the last of this rare breed of cricketing persona to have emerged from India.