What was going on when I was born?

Lawyers who have sued the Union Carbide Corporation over the gas leak disaster in Bhopal, India, filed new multimillion-dollar damage suits yesterday against the company, this time on behalf of victims of the Aug. 11 gas leak at Carbide's similar facility in Institute, W. Va. The new suits, brought in state court in West Virginia and in Federal District Court in Manhattan, will have a major effect on the Bhopal case, the lawyers said. They said the new leak - which sent 135 people to the hospital - disclosed defects in design, operation and emergency response similar to the Dec. 3 accident in India, where 2,000 people died. ''Our position is that even though the plant is in India, the technology decisions were made here,'' said Stanley M. Chesley, a Cincinnati lawyer and a lead counsel in both the Bhopal and Institute actions. ''The accident at Institute shows that.''

A report in the Company Briefs column in Business Day yesterday about Manufactured Homes Inc. misstated the company's location. It is based in Winston-Salem, N.C., and has no affiliation with the company of the same name based in Marshall, Mich.

THE work shirt is an unfaded blue, and the jeans look suspiciously stiff. But the real tipoff that Miles Cahn is no ordinary farmer is his fine leather belt. Until last month, Mr. Cahn, who is 64, and his wife Lillian, 61, were Upper West Siders and co-owners of Coach Leatherware, the New York manufacturer whose Coach bag is a fashion standard. This month they are goat farmers. What the Cahns are setting out to do is to make top-quality natural goat cheese - ''We don't call it chevre,'' Mr. Cahn says. ''That sets my teeth on edge'' - that, they hope, will become as classic as their famous bag. And, they maintain, the two businesses have more in common than might be expected.

The Metropolitan Life Insurance Company said yesterday that it had agreed to buy the Century 21 Real Estate Corporation, the nation's largest real estate sales organization, from the Transworld Corporation. Executives of both companies and the First Boston Corporation, Transworld's investment adviser, declined to disclose the sales price. However, sources in the financial community said the amount was significantly above the $200 million minimum that Transworld set when it put Century 21 up for sale in May.

A leading Sikh political figure was shot and killed today by Sikh assailants in the Indian state of Punjab. The slaying of the political leader, Harchand Singh Longowal, who was president of the mainstream Sikh party, Akali Dal, came less than a month after he had signed an accord with Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi to end a three-year separatist crisis in Punjab in which thousands died. Only hours earlier, a Hindu politician of the governing Congress Party was slain in the Punjab city of Jullundur. Two other Congress members were wounded in the attack, which authorities said had been carried out by Sikhs.

The Economy The economy expanded at a 2 percent annual rate in the second quarter, somewhat faster than estimated last month, the Commerce Department said. While the figure exceeded what most analysts had expected, it showed little of the rejuvenation needed to reach the Administration's goal of 3 percent growth this year. A rise in business inventories accounted for most of the upward revision. [Page D1.] Paul A. Volcker said the Fed would hold down monetary growth if the economy and money supply grow faster than expected. But economists see little chance of that happening. [D7.] After-tax corporate profits fell 0.4 percent in the second quarter, the fifth consecutive quarterly decline. [D7.]

LOBSTERS for $2.99 a pound, fresh whole bluefish for 79 cents a pound and pearly white halibut steaks for $4.99 a pound. Those were a few of the prices last week at some of the retail fish markets run by major seafood wholesalers. There are now several in the New York area, in New Jersey, Brooklyn and Manhattan. They offer wide selection, low prices and generally good quality. A consumer accustomed to typical urban storefront fish markets is likely to find a visit to North American Lobster Company in North Bergen, N.J., like stepping from a Piper Cub into a jumbo jet. This retail-wholesale and restaurant operation, on Routes 1 and 9 South a few miles from the Lincoln Tunnel, is accurately labeled a Seafood Supermarket. (There are two smaller branches, on Route 17 in Carlstadt and on Route 46 in Parsippany.) From the entryway of the gray, warehouse-style building, the doors on the right lead to the retail sales area; the doors on the left take customers into the restaurant. The interior is stylishly industrial, with tiled floors, gray walls, exposed white steel trussing overhead and, in the retail area, a serpentine expanse of display counter that runs close to 50 feet. Whole fish, fish steaks, fillets, smoked fish and shellfish, cooked or uncooked, in the shell or shucked, are displayed on ice. There is a selection of prepared dishes and salads as well.

A state judge ruled yesterday that Assemblyman Herman D. Farrell Jr. may not appear on the Sept. 10 ballot as a candidate for the Democratic nomination for mayor. The judge also threw the Democratic primary for City Council president into disarray when he ordered from the ballot four of the six candidates - former Deputy Mayor Kenneth Lipper, Asemblyman Angelo Del Toro, State Senator Israel Ruiz Jr. and Joseph Erazo. If the rulings stand up on appeal, the only candidates would be Borough President Andrew J. Stein of Manhattan and Loraine Stevens of the New Alliance Party. All of the candidates said they would appeal the decisions, setting the stage for hearings today in the Appellate Division of State Supreme Court. Issue of Cover Sheets The judge, Justice Arthur E. Blyn of State Supreme Court in Manhattan, said his rulings were based primarily on his finding that the cover sheets on packets of petitions contained errors in the counting of pages and signatures.

Governor Kean said today that he would sign legislation to withdraw $2 billion in state investments from companies doing business in South Africa, as a protest against the Pretoria Government's policies of racial separation. Mr. Kean said he had decided to sign the bill despite opposition from the Reagan Administration and estimates by state investment officials that the divestiture, which would take place over the next three years, could cost the state's pension system more than $100 million. ''We can no longer stand by and watch while a system predicated on racism attempts to subjugate an entire people,'' the Governor said. ''The time has come for action to change - and to end, once and for all - the oppressive system of apartheid.''

All over New York yesterday, there were dreams for sale - 19,000 a minute. From Buffalo to Bedford-Stuyvesant, people were buying pie in the sky, castles in the air and grand illusions, all for a few dollars. ''For five bucks, it's the best vacation you can get,'' said Albert Aiello, a 42-year-old data-processing consultant buying his very first Lotto ticket at an Upper East Side newsstand. ''I suddenly thought, what the heck? I might as well start.''

Between 1982 and 1984, New York City gained more people than any other city in the country, reversing a decline in the 1970's in which its recorded population fell by nearly 800,000, according to a study by the Federal Bureau of the Census. The gain, dramatic in itself after a decade of population loss, will also bring the city more Federal aid, because payments for many kinds of aid are based on population. The city estimates that it gets $32 in Federal aid for every person counted by the Census Bureau. The Census study estimates that from July 1982 to July 1984, the city grew by 78,646, to 7,164,742.

IT seems to be one of those unexplained quirks of history and society. Though a large percentage of Indians living in New York and elsewhere in the United States migrated from the state of Gujarat, and though many of us are interested in preparing vegetable dishes as part of a healthy diet, the incredibly tasty vegetarian cuisine of India's Gujarat region is unfamiliar to most Americans. I realized this when, returning by plane from a trip to that part of the world, I sat next to an Indian gentleman who told me that Gujarati cooking is ''among the most interesting in the nation.'' Oddly enough, he continued, ''you can't find a decent Gujarati restaurant in New York.'' The soil of Gujarat, which is in the western part of the country, is very rich; so, too, are the varieties of vegetables, legumes and grains cultivated in the state. This abundance suits the people well. Most are Hindus or Jains: the first do not eat beef, because they consider the cow sacred, and often avoid other meat also; the second are strict vegetarians.