A Conversation with Surbhi Bansal

For anyone who’s ever felt the pull of home even when it’s the last place they want to go, Do Not Follow is a story about navigating the highways of life and discovering that sometimes the road to healing begins where the past and present collide.

Moderated by Megan Lemay.

Saturday, February 7th at 11am.

Seema, a middle-aged immigrant woman, hasn’t been back to her hometown in seventeen years. 
When she finally returns, she expects closure; instead, she finds a house overflowing with the physical and emotional clutter of her past. 

As she navigates the complexities of grief, family secrets, and the sharp edges of her relationship with her mother, Seema must reconcile the life she’s built with the one she left behind. 

Do Not Follow is a heartfelt, introspective exploration of the pull of home, the messiness of belonging, and the quiet courage it takes to seek self-discovery in the places we once tried to forget.

Surbhi Bansal, MD, is an award-winning physician, Associate Professor of Ophthalmology at Virginia Commonwealth University, and a mother of two. 

Born in India and moving to the U.S. at age thirteen, she brings a deeply personal lens to her writing on identity, displacement, and the immigrant experience. 

Her debut novel, Do Not Follow, draws on her love for storytelling and her keen observation of the human condition. 

When she isn’t seeing patients or writing, she enjoys exploring the intersection of art and medicine.

Megan Lemay, MD is an Associate Professor of General Internal Medicine and Addiction Medicine at VCU in Richmond, VA.

She serves as an Associate Editor for the VCU Literary Messenger and has published narrative prose about her work as a physician. 

She is a company member of the Coalition Theater in Richmond, where she performs Improv theater and stand up comedy. 

As a storyteller, she has presented at The Moth, Secretly Y’all, and RISK! (The Podcast). 

She lives in Richmond with her husband and three wild children.