August 12, 1984

Some years ago Zubin Mehta was quoted as saying that he would never conduct any orchestras in India or Russia, countries hostile to Israel. Now he is taking the New York Philharmonic on a tour of the Far East, partly sponsored by Citi bank, N.A., that will begin in Tokyo on Aug. 15 and culminate with five concerts in Delhi, Calcutta and Bombay, ending Sept. 19. Inconsistency? Change of heart? Mr. Mehta has been known to say things in the heat of the moment and then retract them. When he was music director of the Los Angeles Philharmonic he had some nasty words to say about the musicians of the New York Philharmonic, in effect charging them with being a spoiled bunch of prima donnas, nowhere near as good a group as his. He would not marry the Philharmonic if it was the last orchestra on earth. Some years later he stood before them, an invited guest. He apologized handsomely - handsomely enough to become its leader not long after that.The other week Mr. Mehta, spoke about India, Israel, music and politics. He was sporting a grey-flecked beard. When he had to cancel a series of concerts last season because of a tennis elbow, his right arm was in a cast and he could not shave. So he let his beard grow. His mother does not like him thus. ''She won't talk to me,'' Mr. Mehta grinned. He was excited about the trip.

With major office, hotel and retail facilites for Manhattan's West Side on the drawing board the developers of a new office project in West 39th Street hope to profit from expected growth in the area by creating a narrow 25-story tower that will incorporate a vacant Con Edison substation. ''The new tower will be a major beneficiary of an expected shift in the axis of new office development from east to west throughout the midtown business district,'' said Arthur Fefferman, senior vice president of Sybedon Corporation.

President Reagan, accusing the Democrats of ''bottling up'' his Administration's legislative package, today signed a measure prohibiting public high schools from barring student gatherings for religious or political purposes outside class hours. In his regular weekly radio address, paid for by his re-election campaign, Mr. Reagan said the legislation he signed this morning ''will allow student religious groups to begin enjoying a right they've too long been denied, the freedom to meet in public high schools during nonschool hours, just as other student groups are allowed to do.'' The President said that it was only after his prodding that the House of Representatives, controlled by the Democrats, agreed to a vote on the measure. Criticism by O'Neill Thomas P. O'Neill Jr., Speaker of the House, said today, ''If President Reagan really cared about his agenda he would have stayed in Washington to work on it and not gone on vacation.''

High costs have priced many families out of the housing market in Bergen County, N.J. But Tributary Woods, a development of clustered town houses under construction in Englewood, will give middle- income buyers the opportunity to purchase homes starting at $115,000 with down payments as low as 5 percent. Ananda DeSilva, the developer and one of the architects, said savings were made possible through advanced construction techniques and by foregoing the usual recreational amenities.

It was 1965 and a gangling teenager stood on the tips of her toes and peered a little nervously into a studio at the Royal Ballet School in London. A brilliant young Russian dancer named Rudolf Nureyev was rehearsing.