How this UK journalist became godfather of Indian autorickshaw driver's son

An award-winning human rights reporter has become the godfather to the son of an autorickshaw driver whom he happened to meet in India in 2021.

Joe Wallen is a UK journalist covering South Asia who shared the story of a ‘beautiful & unexpected friendship’ on Twitter on Sunday and received a lot of love from the netizens.

In his tweet, Wallen recalled their first meeting, “I got in a random rickshaw at Jio World. It was the start of the most beautiful & unexpected friendship - Shaan has driven me every day since.”

“Today, his wife gave birth to a son. He’s called the baby Yusuf - the Urdu for Joseph - and, asked me to be godfather,” he added.

Wallen also shared a photo of Shaan and the newborn baby. He also mentioned that Shaan’s wife had complications with her pregnancy and that she is from a small village in remote Uttar Pradesh.

He thanked his followers for providing Shaan’s wife with medical treatment.

The story touched the hearts of a lot of people and the users called the friendship ‘wonderful’, ‘fantastic’, and ‘extraordinary’.

After people demanded to know more about the story, Wallen on Tuesday updated that he has written a longer piece on their friendship.