An ornamental Vishnu with removable arms, breaking the news of your recent conversion to Hinduism to your devout Christian mother in a gentle way.

If I ever wished to convert to the wonderful and colourful religion of Hindu, my devout Christian mother wouldn't be too happy. I have the right to believe in anything I wish, but I still don't want to upset my mum. If she walked into the front room and saw my new Vishnu shrine sitting proudly on the mantelpiece, she would probably cry. I need to break the news gently.

I propose that a model Vishnu be made whose arms can be removed. Your mother would enter the room one day and see this non-descript Arabian looking gentleman – actually just an armless ornamental Vishnu - sitting cross-legged, deep in conversation with a porcelain Staffordshire Dog. She’d think absolutely nothing of it. But on the first day of every month, when she’s not looking, you would sneak an arm into one of the slots on the side of Vishnu’s body. This whole thing kind of works on the same principal as shifting your garden fence a little bit every week so as to eventually claim your next-door neighbour’s entire garden without them knowing about it.

There are different ways you could go about it. Maybe you’ll add a new arm every month. Or maybe you’ll put all the arms in at once, push them in to his body so that only the tips of his fingers show, and then pull them out a few centimetres every week. This way, the news of your religious conversion will be broken to your mother in a way she can handle.

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