My dear Ndicho Moja, maybe you are right and I am wrong. We are all too busy and too much in a hurry nowadays, aren’t we? “Pleasantries” as you call it are a waste of time. And you are right again when you say that they don’t come in any RT hand book (or in the Life hand book, for that matter). We learned it (some of us, anyway) from our parents as they learned it from the generation before. It’s called evolution. Why must it be any different in a professional activity, when it takes only two or three seconds to make the difference? Perhaps you should try it; it might make your day a bit more pleasant and less gray.
Regards