ann Kerninon's An Attempt to Assassinate My Inner Bourgeois questions the conventional definition of bourgeois, which sees them only as the property-owning middle classes. With a title like that, one would expect a tedious book, with jaded ideas and a boring repetition of past classifications; but what I found was a book that made me think. This being a rare occurrence, I was curious about the author. To my surprise, far from being a doddering old sage, 38-year-old Kerninon is not only an author, but also a philosopher, art history teacher, a magician and filmmaker. Over coffee at Cafe Turtle, we spoke at length about his ideas, beliefs, life and his work.

In his book, Kerninon makes audacious comparisons to define and explain how we all can live vivifying lives. On his first visit here, he's surprised at the attention he and his book is getting. "The warm reception to my book in India is both humbling and encouraging," he says, confiding that its India release was actually a fluke. "It was Full Circle director Priyanka Malhotra's husband's half-French grandmother who liked my book. She is the reason it was translated for India," he confides laughingly. An Attempt to Assassinate My Inner Bourgeois, which was awarded the Prix du Pamphlet in 2009, classifies people according to their 'bourgeois attitudes', i.e., a mixture of cowardice, conformity, peremptory principles of good faith and being simplistic. Kerninon says the anti-bourgeois tend to reproduce this 'deadly' bourgeois attitude, although they claim to be against the bourgeois ideology. The book explains how one can transcend this dialectic to become 'non-bourgeois', an alive and vibrant individual.

Sipping on his espresso, sitting in the corner of the cafe with the sun streaming in through the window, he talks about how it all started. "I had a more or less bourgeois upbringing. I come from a middle-class family; my father was an engineer. This book is based on my experiences." At the age of 14, Kerninon was conservative, not politically engaged. But as he grew up, he wandered to the Left, politically; then slowly moved to Marx and his socialist ideals. He was shocked when he saw that the idea of a small minority dominating and exploiting the people was true, and that every side had its faults. "Conservatives are boring; they were dominant people who wanted to keep dominating. Similarly, the Left were also lying and boring in the same way, simply paying lip service," he says.

Not wanting to fall into either category, Kerninon decided to map his own journey. "Before we demand a big revolution, we need to change our thinking and self-attitude; only then can we change the world," he says. The concepts in the book are comprehensive and relatable, Kerninon says, adding that he wanted to offer people clarity. The French, he says, tend to think in tight compartments: 'Against Nazis', 'For democracy', etc., but that does not mean anything; it's like repeating concepts that people already know. People want to explain what they are feeling, but do not know how to put it. "We need to recognise the nuances rather than blindly categorise people," he says, adding "My book tries to give people a way to express themselves without being branded."

Kerninon claims that he has achieved more mental freedom since he wrote the book, the bourgeois-anti-bourgeois dialect was constricting. "I am more open to doing new things, more confident in myself and my abilities now. I am not out to impress anyone; not only am I unafraid to say what I think, I'd say that I have no opinions," he says. The Greek philosopher Heraclites said, 'the wise man has no opinion'. "It doesn't mean that one should be neutral, no. But many of the so-called people with opinions lack wisdom," he sighs. I point to a framed quote by Tao Te Ching on the cafe wall that seems to match his ideas: 'Those who know, don't talk; those who talk, don't know'. Kerninon agrees enthusiastically, "I believe in doing more that talking; I know it's strange for me to say that considering I'm an author, but talking is not always thinking."

e has always tried to rethink all fields of life, which is evident even in his first essay, Workbook on Ubiquity in 2003, which redefines and updates the sense of ubiquity. In 2005, his How to Reach the World offered us a 'Handbook for Survival in Desert Times' in the present world. It deals with modernity blending theories from great philosophers of the past with an autobiographical and satirical tone. An Attempt to Assassinate My Inner Bourgeois, first written in French in 2009, studies contemporary times as the failure of class struggle for social justice.

Although he admits to certain biases in French society, where there is a rampant disregard for the working classes, he refuses to draw parallels to Indian society. "At the risk of being provocative, I'll tell you that people who write and work in some of the newspapers in France are not paid. There are long training periods, during which people are exploited. These people write about how they are getting exploited, and the idea gets replicated, again and again," he says. This is probably why An Attempt has 'jumping exercises' that highlight the need to experience life and move outside of bourgeois thought. The author believes that attempting to free oneself of bourgeois thought is the most important; the exercises, like life, is all about trying, falling and getting up to try another time.

The author says experiencing life is important. "The non-bourgeois are all about being alive, seeing the fine points, it's the ability to doubt, reconsider and change issues. If we make society all about small boring boxes and labels, then that would probably be the end of humanity," Kerninon said. However, despite his push towards the 'ideal' state, the author readily admits that no one can be completely non-bourgeois. He quotes Nietzsche in Ecce Homo, 'Hear me, I am such and such a man'. The German philosopher explains how we are all different with life being all about becoming who you are. When you're conceived you have the life source within you, and from then on throughout your life, one creates layers around this life source, until they become someone else. "The challenge here is to peel the layers off — and this takes a lifetime. I have tried, and my book has helped, to find ways for people to be their true self," the author said.

Despite playing various roles, Kerninon says he's on his way to finding his true self. He says, "I explore all I like, all that sounds alive to me. How I live and work is linked to the way I'm at home, how I am with my daughters, how I teach and do magic. It's important not to break your life into parts. It's a deadly dialect in life ... we get work and bored and then we have fun. Fun and happiness and intensity are linked, but different." He refers to one of his favourite lines from his conversation with author Rana Dasgupta, who said, "We're not here to have fun, but we're happy to be here!"

The author says, "Fun and work are interlinked and life is all about change. I'm working on my next book, which is about the love revolution; this is different from the sexual revolution." In the '60s and '70s, the hippie culture was all about making love and not sleeping around; but now society has changed to one divided between conservative morality and pornographic liberalism. This divide is similar to the dialect Kerninon discusses in An Attempt. "It's always best to walks a thin line between the two and live life with enjoyment to the fullest," he says.