What was going on when I was born?

The United States and the Soviet Union have held talks that are reported to have covered plans for negotiations on consular exchanges. Secretary of State George P. Shultz met with Ambassador Anatoly F. Dobrynin on Monday, John Hughes, the State Department spokesman, said today. In Moscow, Arthur A. Hartman, the United States Ambassador, met today with Foreign Minister Andrei A. Gromyko, the department said. A Soviet source here said Mr. Dobrynin had conveyed a note from the Soviet leadership to Mr. Shultz, responding to American messages and denying that the Soviet Union was to denying that the Soviet Union was to blame for the lack of progress in relations. The State Department and the White House would not confirm that such a note had been delivered.

The House of Representatives, by a 355-to-34 vote, approved legislation today to prohibit merchants from demanding extra fees from credit-card customers through mid-1985. The measure was sent to the Senate, which has favored an end to the ban. In February the Senate sent the House legislation extending the ban only to May 15 of this year, after first voting to abolish it entirely.

The war that divided the nation a decade ago divided the State Legislature today as Senate leaders blocked a bill to aid Vietnam veterans because the leading Assembly sponsor of the bill had been a conscientious objector to that war. There was talk once more of honor and principle, service and disgrace - and complaints that the arguments were at the expense of Vietnam veterans who would benefit from the tuition-assistance program in the stalled legislation. The leading Assembly sponsor of the tuition bill is John F. Duane, a freshman Democrat from Queens. In 1972, he was granted conscientious objector status because of his religious beliefs as a Roman Catholic.

The Towner Petroleum Company said yesterday that Selim K. Zilkha, who recently invested in the company and was named its chairman, has been elected to the additional post of chief executive. Mr. Zilkha and Ronald I. Simon, a financial consultant, have invested $25 million in the company's new issue of series B convertible preferred stock. Mr. Simon is now an executive vice president.

THERE is much good to be said for those who eat such wholesome foods as whole-grain breads and cereals, fresh fruits and vegetables, entrees low in fat and salt, desserts low in sugar and beverages free of caffeine. People who approach dining, both at home and in restaurants, with reason and moderation as their guides can expect an improvement in well-being and a decreased risk of developing such diet-related disorders as heart disease, cancer, high blood pressure and obesity. Unfortunately, in far too many cases, reason is supplanted by a fervor that sings the praises of a host of foods of questionable, and sometimes negative, nutritional value. Myths abound in the health food industry and, experts say, many believers are being hoodwinked. Even supermarket shoppers are subject to PERSONAL HEALTHhealth-food hype since major food producers, seeking to cash in on health concerns, now offer many foods with such nutritionally misleading catchwords as ''natural,'' ''no preservatives,'' ''sweetened with honey,'' ''no cholesterol,'' ''no added sugar,'' and the like. And in restaurants, consumers have even less to guide them since menus do not provide a detailed list of ingredients. As a result, in their desire to improve their health through better eating, some people are actually endangering it. And they are paying premium prices for the privilege of doing so.

The Royal Dutch/Shell Group, taking the Shell Oil Company by surprise, said yesterday that it was sweetening its bid for the 30 percent of Shell that it does not own to $58 a share from $55. Shell Oil has already rejected the $55 offer as inadequate. The new offer, involving $5.5 billion for some 94.6 million shares, will begin today, the group said. In a move to discourage sentiment that it might improve its offer still more, Royal Dutch/Shell said that, for at least the next 18 months, it would not increase the price beyond $58, would not make a second tender offer beyond $58 and would not merge Shell Oil into the group.

The 23 elephants were rousing from their snuffling, pre-performance snoozes backstage at Madison Square Garden yesterday. A clown with pink rhinestone teardrops slapped his face with white powder while workers dabbed a clown wagon with orange, pink and lavender paint. Nelly Ivanov sought out yogalike quiet to warm up for her contortionist act as a shouting crew began to lay a green path of nonskid carpeting leading to the circus arena. An hour before the afternoon's opening of Ringling Brothers and Barnum & Bailey Circus - ''the Greatest Show on Earth'' - the first-day bustle was building.

The Scouting column in Sports Pages yesterday incorrectly described the number of viewers watching CBS and NBC programs in Los Angeles during ABC's telecast of a football game Sunday. According to A. C. Nielsen's overnight figures, the CBS and NBC averages in Los Angeles for that time slot were a 4.65 rating and a 14 share.

Guinea's armed forces seized power in a coup a week after the death of President Ahmed Sekou Toure to end what they called a ''bloody and ruthless dictatorship.'' All mass organizations were dissolved and the West African nation's airport and borders were closed. (Page A1, Column 1.) Assassins in Punjab killed a member of Parliament, a university professor who was fatally shot at his home by killers who had said they were students waiting to see him. The killers fled in a car. Meanwhile, at least 10 people were killed and scores injured when the police fired on a crowd in Amritsar, the holy Sikh city in the northern India state. (A1:2.)

Under this heading, The Times amplifies articles or rectifies what the editors consider significant lapses of fairness, balance or perspective. A dispatch from Washington on Monday discussed the proposal to shift the United States Embassy in Israel from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem.

BOSTONCHANGES in the restaurant scene here, like so many things in this city of Brahmins, have been slow. In 1976 Madeleine Kamman, the highly regarded cooking teacher, who operated a restaurant in conjunction with her school in nearby Newton Centre, found it difficult to persuade Bostonians that her prix fixe nouvelle cuisine dinners at about $25 were worth the money. But the city's dining front has changed in the last five years, thanks largely to the influence of the since- departed Mrs. Kamman and Julia Child, who has made her home in Cambridge for many years. It is the young chefs here, like their peers all over the country, who are in the forefront of these changes, practicing to one degree or another what is being called the new American cooking. They use the most current ingredients: fresh foie gras, baby vegetables, game, smoked fish, warm salads, wild mushrooms and, of course, the wonderful seafood for which the city is famous. The emphasis is on the freshest possible ingredients.

Several American banks are considering voluntarily lowering their reported net income for the first quarter to reflect a continued lag in receiving interest payments from Argentina, although the last-minute agreement over the weekend was intended to avoid having to do this. A reduction in reported earnings would result if the banks reclassified their Argentine loans to nonaccrual status. The emergency $500 million weekend package to aid Argentina provided funds for that nation to pay long-overdue interest. Such payment lets the banks avoid being forced, under United States regulations, to declare the loans nonaccruing.