How much does it take to be courteous? Does it take too much?

Such simple things in life..and yet people in our country fail to be courteous or behave courteously..I have seen so many instances, where a simple gesture could show the other person so much courtesy.

Say for example, while you are standing in queue to heat your food in the microwave in the office cafeteria. You see a person has kept their stuff to heat and gone elsewhere, maybe to take plate and spoon. Typical scenario experienced by me, if the food is heated, person next in line will very rudely remove the absent persons' stuff and keep theirs. This happened with me once, and I was like "How rude!" What would the other person have lost if they had shown the small courtesy of waiting for me..and then I could have removed my dabba from the microwave on my own..

Why people in our country lack courtesy? What stops us from giving each other a smile or nodding our heads while passing by..is the multitude of problems we face in our daily lives, or is it that we are just rude...I fail to reason though..

I wish we Indians were more courteous...