The quintessential Indian moment

The other day, I was swimming lengths in the pool where I have a membership. The pool is 25 meters long and about 3 lanes wide.
With me were 2 other length swimmers. For 15 minutes the three of us were harmoniously swimming lengths together. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw a fourth man approaching the pool. I thought: Damn, now I will have to swim closer to the wall, but no matter, we are all friend here, and I moved over.
This relatively fit looking 45ish year old man, gets in the pool and without a glance in anyone's direction and without a regard for the 'You were here first, so I'll do it your way' rule, starts swimming widths.
The pool is only about 8 meters wide, so how could he think of this as worth while exercise? I might have forgiven him if he was an incompetent swimmer, but he was doing alright from what I could see.
Every time I got to the point when I'd just done a tumble turn, my trajectory was disturbed by a pair of very hairy men's legs and I had to break the surface earlier than expected and gasp for air and in exasperation.

Please, please, please will someone explain this behavior to me.
Why do people in India do things like this? I am desperate to know. Maybe once I understand the thinking, I will be able to accept it and not get so annoyed. I mean it, you will be doing me a BIG favour if you can answer this question.