Irfan Pathan
Pathan was born 27 October 1984 in Baroda, Gujarat, India and is of Pashtun (Pathan) ancestry, belonging to the Pathan community in Gujarat. He grew up with his elder brother Yusuf in a mosque in Vadodara, in an impoverished family. His father served as the muezzin. Although their parents wished them to become Islamic scholars, Pathan and his brother took an interest in cricket. Their games on the grounds off and inside the mosque often necessitated apologies from their father to Muslim worshippers who visited it. In the beginning his deliveries did not reach the other end of the cricket pitch, but rigorous six-hour training sessions in blazing heat and his family's sense of discipline saw him progress steadily.
Irfan Nasirabadi
Syed Irfan Abbas Rizvi (born 5 June 1975) is a poet, writer and auhakhawn (Noha reciter) from Nasirabad, Uttar Pradesh, India. He is well known in the Shia community and is considered the best Noha auhakhawn who recites his own nauhe. He rose to fame in the 1996s when his Nohas and poetry gained popularity overseas.