A RECENT household survey of Asian people in Britain has yielded a number of interesting statistics.

Although, I am not sure if any of these significantly differ from similar activities in the mainstream population, I believe they may be of interest to readers.

Firstly, it is reported that 49 per cent of the Asian population shop at Sainsbury's, while 37 per cent visit Tesco and 31 per cent go to specialist Asian supermarkets for their weekly shopping. Moreover, about 32 per cent of Asian adults spend £75 per week on food, while one out of every four Asians spends £15 or more a week on a takeaway, (it is not clear whether the takeaway is from a curry house), more than half play the National Lottery, and about a quarter watch about six hours of TV every night. 41 per cent do not have a credit card but 45 per cent have personal computers and yet only five per cent use the Internet. Importantly only 30 per cent of respondents do not do any exercise and about a quarter are overweight and three out of ten are smokers, so nothing new there. It is not clear whether this survey was carried out nationally or in some parts of the country only, but some statistics seem to resonate with me.

THE one thing the survey has not measured is about the levels of stress we all seem to be under. Time was, that an unwitting smoker would light up in a no-smoking train carriage, with shouts of disapproval from other passengers. Fortunately, nowadays all trains are no-smoking and so are the underground stations. But this has only forced smokers to light up in numbers on the street and it is quite an art to miss the clouds of smoke drifting behind the smoker in front.

Then there was the mobile telephone, which still irritates most of the people forced to listen to the user's latest report to base about the whereabouts of the train. But even this social irritant has its uses, especially when the train is stuck somewhere with no hope of movement and you want to let your office know how late you might be.

Unfortunately, I have discovered another anti-social activity, which seems to be a source of stress at least for me. I am increasingly coming across people who either put their feet on unoccupied seats on trains or try to sit with one leg over the other knee in a crowded train or tube, with the foot poised to touch anyone who comes near. Not only do these people have no regard for the rudeness of the gesture itself, but often do not offer simple apologies when the soles of their shoes brush against the next person's trouser leg, as the train slows or moves off quickly.