We have to commend Zug, Switzerland and its establishments for making life seamless for its people as well as expats like me. I went to Einwohnerkontrolle Zug this morning, took a seat in front of the respected officer and let them know I am moving back to India and would like to deregister from Zug canton. The first question I was asked was if I speak Deutsch for which my standard response all these five years have been a "No" or "Nein" like today with an awkward smile. I indeed felt embarrassed that I have not set aside time to learn German language all these years in Switzerland. The total process took 10 minutes with the officer asking a couple of questions about the long Indian address I provided. When I received the deregistration certificate, I stood up greeting the officer and saying "Switzerland is a very beautiful and nice country!" for which the officer smiled and said "Maybe you can come back again".
I walked out of the Stadthaus Zug with a smile on my face. I don't think there will ever be a place like Zug which is a bubble inside the bigger bubble Switzerland. Zug is a small city which has almost everything. When my Mom and Aunt visited Switzerland last year, I showed them the shiny spotless stainless-steel rubbish bins in Bundesplatz whose lids land gracefully without making any noise. For me, that is a visual anecdote of what Zug is. There is silent wealth everywhere to be seen and felt from the marble walkways in front of Zuger Kantonal bank building to the newly built Strandbad on Zug lake. The rest of the deregistration process with energy, mobile phone, internet, and health insurance all took a couple of minutes at their respective offices which are at a walking distance from each other. The only pending work is with registering Indian address with my Swiss bank, which apparently takes a while with my funds frozen for a month. I postponed this to the end of the month.
Now, I am in my beautiful balcony watching trains leave from Zug station, thinking it is time for me to leave Zug as well. Zug will forever have a special place in my heart. Thank you, Zug and Switzerland!