What was going on when I was born?

Prime Minister Indira Gandhi was assassinated today by two gunmen who opened fire on her near her home. Mrs. Gandhi, the dominant figure in Indian politics for nearly two decades, died less than four hours after undergoing emergency surgery at the All-India Institute of Medical Sciences for between 8 and 16 bullet wounds in the abdomen and thigh. She was 66 years old. The Press Trust of India reported that the Prime Minister was gunned down by two members of her own security guard armed with a revolver and submachine gun as she walked from her residence to her office at 9:40 A.M. (11:10 P.M., Tuesday, Eastern standard time). The Press Trust report said the two assailants were members of the Sikh religion and had been captured.

WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 31, 1984 International The body of a missing Polish priest was found by police frogmen in a Vistula River reservoir 11 days after he was kidnapped by three officers of the state security police, the Polish Government announced. Lech Walesa, the founder of Solidarity, appealed for calm, and there were no reports of disturbances after the announcement that the pro-Solidarity priest, the Rev. Jerzy Popieluszko, had been murdered and his body recovered. (Page A1, Columns 3-4.) OPEC agreed on a general formula to distribute cuts in oil production among its 13 member countries in the organization's effort to bolster sagging prices. But industry analysts said the action was unlikely to change oil prices or output in the immediate future. (A1:5.)

There were jack-o'-lanterns in the windows and witches on the bulletin board at Our Lady of Perpetual Help Roman Catholic School in Ozone Park, Queens, yesterday. But in the auditorium it was definitely Christmas. The choir sang a medley of carols, and speakers talked about the spirit of the holiday season. And leaning against an easel on stage was a picture of a plump, jolly, red-suited Santa Claus - ridged around the edges, branded with a 20-cent mark and issued yesterday by the United States Postal Service as the 1984 contemporary Christmas stamp design.

A Presidential commission yesterday called for new Federal laws to curb what it termed the widespread use of financial institutions to disguise illegally gained money and make it easier to use. In a report issued in New York, the Commission on Organized Crime said a new national strategy was needed to combat the practice of laundering illicit money to make it appear legitimate, often through transferring it out of the country and back again. The commission attacked American financial institutions as failing to cooperate with law-enforcement agencies and said officials of banks, brokerage houses and casinos had been drawn into laundering schemes, often unwittingly, but sometimes knowingly for a share of the profits. The report said that in some cases banking officials were bribed to look the other way. More frequently, officials said, bankers did not question large cash deposits, anticipating profit to the bank through temporary investment or because of fear of becoming involved in a criminal proceeding.

New York State's highest court ruled yesterday that a person may be deemed legally dead when the brain has ceased to function, even if the heartbeat and breathing are being maintained by artificial means. The decision, by the State Court of Appeals, marks the court's most extensive attempt to define the moment and mechanism of death in light of recent medical advances. With it, New York joins 37 other states that by statute or court decision have expanded the traditional definition of death - that is, when the heart and lungs stop functioning - to include the functioning of the brain. The court's unanimous decision, written by Chief Judge Lawrence H. Cooke, upheld manslaughter convictions in two shotgun deaths. It was hailed by law enforcement officials, who said it helped clarify the law and would encourage organ transplants.

Reversing its recent slump, the stock market rose sharply in heavier trading yesterday. Investors were encouraged by economic news and the rise in bond prices. The Dow Jones industrial average surged 15.90 points, to 1,217.31, after plunging almost 25 points in the preceding six sessions. In the overall market, gainers on the New York Stock Exchange outnumbered losers by more than a 2-to-1 ratio.

The governing Sandinista National Liberation Front has secretly offered to provide opposition political parties with additional campaign funds in exchange for promises that they will take certain political positions, according to party leaders. Opposition activists also said American diplomats had been pressing them to drop out of the race. The United States Embassy confirmed that senior diplomats had met with leaders of opposition parties in the last two weeks, but denied that pressure had been applied. The United States has characterized the Nicaraguan election as illegitimate because too many important opposition forces are not taking part.

AUTUMN vegetables have a charming sort of plainness. Potatoes and onions, squash and pumpkins, cabbage and the other brassicas like brussels sprouts and broccoli, turnips, carrots, beets and parsnips - these are vegetables meant to be stored in attic, barn and cellar, to strengthen and sustain us through the long, dark days of winter. As such, they have an undeniably homely appeal. They also have an undeniable problem, for these are the vegetables that generations of cooks have ruined with overcooking. Few childhood memories are more fraught with unhappiness than the recollection of mashed watery squash, lumpy turnips, limp, gray broccoli and the dull, complaisant odor of long- boiled cabbage rising from the dinner plate. Indeed, for many years boiling seems to have been the only culinary treatment most vegetables were indulged. Cookbooks dismissed vegetables with a few recipes for composed salads and so-called cream sauces. The cook's technique, all too often, was reduced to one rule: If it doesn't taste good, throw it back in the water and boil it some more.

WHEN John J. O'Connor was installed as Archbishop of New York in March, he promised to learn Spanish to communicate better with the 800,000 Spanish-speaking Roman Catholics in the archdiocese. Five months later, before 10,000 people in Haverstraw, N.Y., he proclaimed: ''Yo mismo he escrito estas palabras, incluso los errores'' (''I have written these words myself, including the errors''). The Archbishop's effort was hardly a miracle, though one member of the congregation suggested that ''the Holy Spirit must have been teaching him.'' Specialists in foreign languages say there is no reason why most educated adults cannot match this feat. But learning to speak a foreign language fluently requires considerably more than five months, the experts insist. The increasing number of adults who want to master one in a hurry - responding in part to the growing demand in government and business for people who have foreign languages - may detect a hollow ring in advertisements that promise ''Speak French like a diplomat'' or ''Fluency in 30 days.''

The United States Steel Corporation, showing slightly better than break-even results on its steel operations, reported yesterday a hefty third-quarter profit gain aided by its pension-plan accrual changes and the sale of coal properties. Oil and gas operations, while profitable, did less well than a year earlier, in line with the rest of that industry. The Pittsburgh-based company said that earnings increased nearly threefold, to $153 million, or $1.15 a share, from $52 million, or 27 cents a share, in the same period a year ago. Sales rose 2.2 percent, to $4.7 billion, from $4.6 billion.

One of the most encouraging developments in the economy this year has been the sharp decline in interest rates over the last five months. Although the drop coincided with a weakening in the economy, lower rates have put new life into the stock market, where prices have rebounded from the summer lows, while also holding out hope that the economy will not slide into a full-fledged recession. The catalyst for lower Treasury bond yields - which yesterday fell to the lowest level of the year amid conjecture that leading economic indicators will be very weak when they are announced today - was a slowdown in economic growth from the potentially inflationary 8 1/2 percent growth rate of the first half. More recently, the decline has spread to short-term interest rates as the Federal Reserve responded to the weakening of the economy with an easier monetary policy. ''Rates have further to go in the downward direction,'' said Peter Treadway, chief economist at Cralin & Company, a securities firm. High rates earlier in the year contributed to the slowdown in economic activity, he said, adding that the drop in rates was likely to continue until economic activity rebounded and the demand for credit increased.

In a step that may lead toward greater foreign participation in the advisory councils that help shape Japanese industrial policy, foreign businessmen were allowed today for the first time to testify before a council of the Ministry of International Trade and Industry. During a closed-door meeting on a plan to encourage high-technology research and development, executives from chambers of commerce of the United States, Britain, France and West Germany urged that foreign companies be allowed to participate in research and development projects in Japan. Such projects are of great interest to foreign companies in Japan. In an August report, new policies to encourage research and development were proposed by the ministry's industrial structure council, one of the key groups in forming Japan's industrial strategy.