Travelling without passport for Indian newborn

Hello Experts,
I am here on Tier 2 General and had applied for Indian passport for my 4 months old son on 16th Dec 2013 and based on a lot of recent posts on the forum assumed that I would get the passport in 2 weeks. I had made my travel plans to go to India on 18th Jan. I have still not got my son's passport. Upon emailing Indian embassy to find the status of the application, they keep saying "it can take up to 5 weeks".
My situation is not quite simple as changing and postponing my tickets ( not going into the details reasons here ). But the point is I have to travel on that date.
I have 2 questions:
Is there any way to find out the status of the passport application? Do they inform when passport is ready or do you just go after 5 weeks and try your luck?
Can my son travel with me without his passport? What do I need to do for that?

I am really hoping someone can help me.

Thanks,
Deepto

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