Digging up Lewinskygate: An office romance that went wrong

What happens when you are a 20-something woman, who falls in love with her boss? What happens when your boss happens to be a much-married man? What happens when your boss happens to be the president of the most powerful nation in the world?You end up as Monica Lewinsky. Just that, had that much (in)famous scandal taken place today, in 2014, you might not even have lived to see what became of you the morning after the scandal leaked out. Back in a world, which was not crippled by a smartphone-tablet-laptop diarrhoea, Monica Lewinsky managed to become an overnight sensation, thanks to the still-in-its-infancy internet. However, there was the charm of secretly taping conversations, and there was the added kick emanating from the fact that the conversations could wreck apart the life of the most powerful man on the earth.

There was that news-clip, of the bang-ed Lewinsky (no pun here!), with her painted nails and an almost-teary disposition that did the rounds of channels all through the ill-fated time when she finally gave in to the growing demands of "the truth". Her "blue dress", with the Presidential semen stain on it later went on to become, arguably, the most scandalous dress in the history of the US. And for his part, Bill Chutzpah Clinton went on to earn for himself, an impeachment by the US House of Representatives - and, well, a lot of gasps and sighs and the occasional adoration.

The Clinton scandal did for Lewinsky what probably nothing had done for her 'til then - it turned her into a sensation, overnight. A White House intern, who nobody even knew existed, became the stuff of pop culture legends. There were the never-ending interviews, which made for much of the TRPs of US TV through 1997-99, and continued for a long time after the whirlwind had settled down. The affair, however, never left public memory, what with routine or infrequent exorcisms of the same over the last two decades. Over gazillions of videos of her confession, Clinton's denial, Clinton's subsequent admitting of the affair; media has played its role in catapulting Lewinsky - to a large extent; and Clinton, somewhat, to the league of inverted demigods.

The Bill-Monica saga had in it every ounce the material for a scandal. The fact that it happened to involve the 42nd President of the United States just helped deepen that already-unfathomable abyss. To begin with, it was already in the frowned-upon zone of office romances. Add to that a much-married boss, who had by then acquired for himself the (un)official tag of an office-philanderer. And of course, there was the fact that Monica and Bill were separated in age by some twenty years. Clinton's initial denial added more colours to the scandal, and his argument defending himself helped redefine the word 'is'. After denying under oath that he had never had a relationship with Lewinsky, the then-Prez had said, "It depends on what the meaning of the word  "is'"is," thereby ensuring that that sentence found its rightful place in the history of public memory.

Twenty years down the line, the ghosts of the past don't cease returning to haunt Monica Lewinsky and Bill Clinton. As recently as this week, Lewinsky's first public address at the Forbes' Under-30 Summit in Philadelphia yet again raked up the never-buried scandal. The 1995-96 White House intern opened up about how she "fell in love with her boss" and was "publicly shamed" for it. An older and much-wiser Lewinsky shared with an audience of near-1000 how the internet and the media were used to turn her into a "patient zero", after a website broke the scandal in 1998. After the episode, she said, the predominant thought in her mind was that she wanted to die.

While the initial discovery of the scandal had led to Clinton's impeachment, Lewinsky's recent comments come at a time when Hilary Clinton is almost on her way to contest the 2016 Presidential Elections. It will probably never be known what the actual - if any - intentions of Monica's re-speaking out in public is. But as long as it is publicity...well, as Miss Lewinsky says, maybe it is time to "bury the hatchet".

How that can be accomplished, is an issue that needs to be worked on for a while, though.