Smile Courtesy

We have enough ‘material’ about benefits of smiling, service with a smile, smile as a cost effective customer service etc.
But seldom have we found ‘genuineness’ in a smile.
That is why the question tempted me.
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In fact, when I took my maiden flight about an year ago, I felt aghast at the plastic smile by the lady who was going through the motions of explaining the actions needed to be done in an emergency situation, with that air-filled safety balloon gadget placed below the seats. The talk was done by a pre-recorded noise, and all she had to do was synchronize the explanatory animation gestures! The struggle to retain the cheeks elongated sideways to simulate a purported smile was visibly quite painful for that entire duration of few minutes of playback of pre-recorded ‘talk’. I was under the illusion that, being well paid, they might be dedicated at least ‘during’ the smile, though not during the entire flight.
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And I re-experienced afresh, a tremendous contrast, when I got into a local ordinary bus, soon after coming out of the airplane/airport. It so happened that an old lady was day-dreaming and delayed to get down at her stop, and the bus conductor, poorly paid, shabbily dressed, was visibly annoyed, and shouted at her, to become more alert and try not to miss her alighting stop. Fortunately, the bus was less crowded, and getting emptied when I was to get down at the last stop, and I managed a humble thanks to that conductor for his “genuine” concern for the passenger, and her safety and convenience, and fully endorsed his rough/crude tone, since that was the only way we could get the proper attention of a lady of that age, background, and poor literacy, especially, when the conductor was choice-less about the very brief time available, lack of proper ambience to think of niceties, decorum etc.
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I was quite unexpectedly rewarded, when he acknowledged my appreciation with a gentle genuine smile, and in utter humility, and gratitude that “there are people who do notice their sense of social responsibility, passenger-concerns, amidst several job-constraints”. Now I took time to tell him the contrast I noticed when I was up in mid sky about half an hour ago, when the smile was plastic (despite the ‘elite-class’ high-literate passengers, and a high paid job, etc!).
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I feel fortunate that my answer found a favourable appeal.
Psn

http://in.answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20110331231131AAixtm3
The question:
A genuine smile is rare....right ?
Additional Details: ...rare to find.