From diagnosis to hope: Mother builds 38K-strong community after son’s autism diagnosis

When Neha Tandon got her son Maahir’s autism diagnosis in 2008, she sat in her car and thought: “A diagnosis would explain my son, but it would never define his future.”

Maahir was 2½ when he was diagnosed with severe regressive autism. He had stopped speaking and making eye contact. Neha left her media job to focus on therapy, but found progress only when she stopped teaching and started connecting.

She also fought school exclusion. After one school kept Maahir in a separate room, she withdrew him, saying “Inclusion is not charity. It is a right.” She took him traveling across India and abroad to Singapore, Hong Kong and Disneyland.

In 2023 she started @made.it.special after posting a video of Maahir, now 19, making chocolates for a school event. The page has grown to 38.5K followers and offers guidance to parents navigating autism.

Today Maahir makes candles and chocolates, runs workshops, and travels. Neha is now CGO at Zingabad.
“Children are not reports,” she says. “Sometimes all they need is someone who believes in them long enough.”