What was going on when I was born?

The United Nations announced today that Israeli and Lebanese military teams would begin talks Monday in southern Lebanon on the subject of Israeli withdrawal from that region. The conference, which is to take place at Naqura, headquarters of the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon, also will deal with the security of Israel's northern border, which Israel has long demanded as a precondition for any withdrawal. United Nations officials declined to discuss the agreement, indicating that to do so might jeopardize any prospect of success. Syria, which also occupies part of southern Lebanon, will not take part in the talks.

''Indira Gandhi, India's Prime Minister, has been assassinated. She was mother not only to me but to the whole nation.

IT had taken months of hunting, but finally, in the summer of1982, Sandra and Robert Wagenfeld found just the house they'd been looking for - a four-story 1821 brick Federal house on Bedford Street in Greenwich Village. Purportedly it had once been the home of Aaron Burr and it had lots of light, space and charm. And a shabby 1922 gas station in the backyard. The house was in move-in condition, and the Wagenfelds knew just what to do the with the deteriorated gas station - demolish it and make way for a garden. Then came reality, New York City style.

The writer of this article is executive editor of The New York Times and was its correspondent in India from 1954 to 1958. He has revisited India often, most recently in January and February this year. In India's great years of hope, when Jawaharlal Nehru was Prime Minister and the people called him their beloved jewel, the young woman was almost always with him, usually not at his side, but a few steps behind. Indira, Mr. Nehru's only child, appeared with him at receptions and meetings in New Delhi, smiling, nodding, holding her hands together gently to her forehead in greeting, murmuring a word now and then. In villages far from New Delhi she walked behind him down dusty roads. She sat motionless on platforms while he talked to city crowds of hundreds of thousands, millions sometimes, usually scolding them for their faults, a father quite loving but quick to anger.

The barometer the Government uses to try to predict changes in the course of the economy registered a bit of a rise last month, reversing three consecutive months of decline, the Commerce Department said today. The index of leading indicators, which monitors such things as contracts to build factories, business formations and home-construction permits, rose four-tenths of 1 percent in the month. That was far less than the average monthly gains last year of 1.25 percent but close to the average of the first half of this year. More Components Ready Last month's rise would have been somewhat smaller if not for one of the 12 components of the index, a change in business and consumer borrowing, that usually arrives too late for inclusion in the initial monthly report.

The opening of the 63d Street subway between Manhattan and Queens - New York City's first new subway tunnel in more than half a century - has been postponed again, this time because of construction problems. Begun more than 13 years ago, the project has been plagued with setbacks, the latest being water leaks in various equipment rooms and a labor strike that affected the delivery of concrete. In part a tunnel carved through rock, in part 375-foot-long sections sunk under the silt of the East River, the 63d Street subway was supposed to open next January. But now transit officials say the date will be no sooner than next fall. Too Few Riders?

The nation's trade deficit widened to $12.6 billion in September, the second- biggest monthly total on record, as a flood of imports swamped a slight rise in exports, the Commerce Department said today. The deficit for August was $9.9 billion and for the first nine months of the year it totaled $96.3 billion, far exceeding the record deficit for all of 1983 of $69.4 billion. The Government is predicting this year's deficit will easily reach $130 billion.

The Storage Technology Corporation, a one-time computer industry highflier, filed for bankruptcy protection yesterday, the victim of increased aggressiveness by the International Business Machines Corporation, and of its own mistakes. The Louisville, Colo., manufacturer of data storage devices for large computers said it had decided that its ''best alternative'' was to seek reorganization under Chapter 11 of the Bankruptcy Code. In Chapter 11, Storage will be allowed to reorganize, while its creditors are held temporarily at bay. The company also said that it now expects to report a loss of at least $60 million for the third quarter, and is considering additional write-offs. Previously, the company said it had expected only a $20 million loss.

A dispatch from Paris on Sept. 24 about the election of former President Valery Giscard d'Estaing to Parliament misstated his family's history of service in Parliament. His grandfather and great-grandfather served, but not his father.

COLLAPSIBLE furniture, a necessity for those who live in small spaces, is no longer a stepchild of the design world. Manufacturers are now turning out pieces that are both comfortable and good-looking. Closed, most of them are small enough to fit in a closet; open, they are handsome enough to enhance a room. Made to stand up to hard use, they can be put together and taken apart without tools or complicated instructions. A few pieces of foldable furniture, because of their elegant shapes, are intended to be hung on the wall as art. Among them are chairs by the woodworker Tom Loeser. Painted in soft pastels and inspired by the Shaker tradition of suspending chairs when not in use, they fold absolutely flat. The chairs are $3,000 a pair at the Heller Gallery.

Air One, a nine-plane airline based in St. Louis, was staring at bankruptcy two weeks ago. It needed money quickly, just to pay the fuel bill to keep its planes aloft. That was why it snapped up the only offer it had - from a young man. So young, in fact, that school records show him to be 19 years old. The youth, Scot M. Spencer, promised to wire $350,000 to take care of the fuel bill and later to pump additional capital into Air One in exchange for stock.

Rajiv Gandhi, who was chosen today to become India's new Prime Minister after the assassination of his mother, Indira, was propelled into public life after his younger, more politically ambitious brother, Sanjay, died in a stunt plane crash in 1980. At the time, Sanjay was regarded as his mother's likely successor and, after Mrs. Gandhi, the most powerful politician in the country. Sanjay's death left a vacuum that Mrs. Gandhi and her followers urged Rajiv to fill. Rajiv, who is now 40 years old, apparently reluctantly resigned his job with Indian Airlines and agreed to contest an electoral race to fill Sanjay's seat in Parliament the next year. He won the election by a large margin, promising to rid Indian politics of corruption and venality, a campaign that earned him the nickname ''Mr. Clean.''